Hacking Windows 7 Media Center

Adding Boxee to Media Center (x86 and x64)

by Michael Healy @ 6:15 am on January 29th, 2009 in extras library, plugins, programs, streaming tv with 13 Comments and Permalink

Missing Remote has a wonderful write-up and download available to help those who have been lucky enough so far to get in to the Boxee alpha test. Boxee is a media center style application that has gained popularity for it’s ability to stream video from online sources such as Hulu and Joost. These two services provide a wealth of content including full length shows from many of the popular TV networks and even full length movies. The problem is, how do we get these great features into Windows 7 Media Center?

Boxee in Start Menu

For Windows 7 x86 users they can follow the guide at Missing Remote. Download the original Zip file, made by Missing Remote with help from Andrew Cherry, and extract it to your Boxee installation directory. Once you have a new directory under your Boxee installation (“C:Program FilesBoxeeBoxeeMCE”) navigate to that directory and right-click to lauch “InstallBoxee.cmd”. A dialog will appear noting the success of the install.

For x64 users you will need a slightly modified version of the Zip file (Alternative Download). This version allows your to install Boxee to the “Program Files (x86)” location that is the default for x64 users.

The process for getting Boxee onto the start menu is also slightly different in Windows 7 Media Center than it was in Vista. Once you’ve run the “InstallBoxee.cmd” from your BoxeeBoxeeMCE directory open Media Center and navigate to the Extras menu. Boxee should now be listed inside the Extras Library.

Boxee in Media Center

Unfortunately, there’s currently not much information on adding icons to the default menus such as TV or Movies. We can, however, add an icon to the main Extras menu from inside Media Center. To do this simply bring up the right-click (remote button “i”) and click on “Add to Start Menu”. You should now have access to Boxee from your Media Center in Windows 7 x86 or x64!

Be sure to check out the plug-ins section for more great additions to Media Center or Hack7MC’s preview of Boxee!

13 Comments


Dmoose
Comment #25 from Dmoose [Reply]

there is no file on the x64 zip link.

Comment left February 2, 2009 at 10:19 am with Permalink

MHealy
Comment #26 from MHealy [Reply]

It’s working for me: http://sites.google.com/site/hack7mc/Top/adding-boxee-to-media-center/BoxeeMCE_x64.zip?attredirects=0

If that link doesn’t work for you though, here’s an alternative:
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?jwe04imwkgj

Comment left February 2, 2009 at 2:40 pm with Permalink

Russ
Comment #1989 from Russ [Reply]

I have just installed this application in 7MCE, when i launch Boxee from MCE i get a message that MCEapplication handler has stopped working does anyone know how i can fix this.. I also can’t see to uninstall the application either…

Comment left July 3, 2009 at 5:50 pm with Permalink

Anonymous
@Reply #2286 from Anonymous [Reply]

I see the same message….any suggestions? Thanks for the help

Comment left July 25, 2009 at 10:59 am with Permalink

Dom
Comment #2118 from Dom [Reply]

Is there a way to enable Boxee on a Media Center Extender..?

Comment left July 14, 2009 at 4:20 am with Permalink

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Comment left December 18, 2009 at 10:23 am with Permalink

Stefan
Comment #5861 from Stefan [Reply]

Hi
I just installed boxee on my media center pc. It worked just fine once immediately after installation.
Then I installed the MCE-Plugin, as described in this post.
Since then, the entire Boxee-display, be it within MCE or as standalone program is scaled up so big, that I can no longer read the menu on the left. I have to blindly navigate to close boxee (or to boot the pc by pressing the power button long enough).
What’s wrong with this display?
Thanks, for any help, Stefan

Comment left December 20, 2009 at 1:51 pm with Permalink

John
Comment #6186 from John [Reply]

Is there any option to add a Windows Media Center icon to Boxee?

Thanks – John

Comment left December 31, 2009 at 3:16 pm with Permalink

Joe
Comment #6388 from Joe [Reply]

I did the install on a 64 Bit Windows 7 setup. I do not get a Boxee icon in the Extras listing. However, if I try to reinstall this, the dos window tells me that the app is already registered.

Any ideas?

Comment left January 6, 2010 at 4:48 pm with Permalink

SikSlayer
Comment #6759 from SikSlayer [Reply]

Is there any way to modify this method so I can launch XBMC in the same way? If I could do that, it would be the ultimate. Boxee sucks at scraping my content, and MCE has FF/RW issues XBMC and Boxee don’t.

Comment left January 19, 2010 at 4:01 am with Permalink

Sean
Comment #6807 from Sean [Reply]

This took 5 mins, great feature. Thanks to everyone who contributed.

Comment left January 20, 2010 at 8:16 pm with Permalink

Josh
Comment #8081 from Josh [Reply]

It might be important to note that the Boxee and Hulu plugins from missing remote have the exact same GUID… which means it won’t let you have Boxee and Hulu active at the same time. Make sure to uninstall both xmls, make sure to change the GUID for one of the xml on both GUID sections and reinstall both using the cmd. What a pain!

Comment left February 26, 2010 at 12:39 am with Permalink

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