Welcome back to another Reader Question and Answer here on Hack7MC. Hopefully you’ve had a good weekend and are rested up for the week ahead. Today we’ve got a few questions from around the site’s comments and from our Reader Q&A form which can be found at the end of each Q&A post. If you’ve got a question you’d like to see featured in a future Reader Question and Answer be sure to send it in below!

Question #1 fromwickham40:

How can I check which version of Media Browser I have.
I installed 2.1 and I switched on auto update but I don’t know if it is updated or not. I cannot find the version number at all.

Answer:

To find which version of Media Browser you’ve got installed enter the configuration panel from inside Windows Media Center. Once you’re inside the configuration you should be able to find the currently installed version number in the upper right hand corner.

It should be noted that even with automatic updates and beta updates enabled that it takes a few days following the availability of the downloadable patch or update before they are marked for automatic distribution. This is done to ensure that the best quality updates possible are distributed through the automatic update.

Question #2 from Ken:

I really like the album art waterfall that W7MC displays while playing audio files. One major change that I’ve noticed between the beta and the RC is that it has slowed to an almost glacial scroll rate. Is there anyway to adjust this?

Answer:

Yes, I noticed this as well. Unfortunately the scroll rate isn’t easily edited by the end user as it’s packed inside the ehres.dll file. If you’ve got a copy of Restorator installed you can open the ehres.dll file found in C:\Windows\ehome and edit the file under \html\albumartbackground.xml. You will find the variable to adjust the speed of the animation called TimerForScrolling. Adjust the Interval in milliseconds to increase or decrease the scrolling speed, a lower timer will increase the speed while a higher number will slow it down.

Also, we have a patch available for download here at Hack7MC that you can install the set the timer interval to 1000 (1sec) which seems to be roughly the original speed from the earlier betas. It should be noted that the speed was likely decreased due to performance problems with lower end machines however.

Question #3 from Nick:

I just wondered what you take was on running a disk defragmenter on your media center. Would there be any benefits?

Answer:

While it certainly can’t hurt the benefits are unlikely to be very noticeable on modern systems. Also, by default, Windows 7 performs a disk defragmentation weekly already. You can also enable Windows Media Center to automatically perform basic system optimization on a daily basis through the Tasks –> Settings –> General –> Optimization menu. This should keep your system in good running condition if you’ve got a dedicated home theater pc running Windows 7 Media Center.

Have you got a question for a future Reader Question and Answer here on Hacking Windows 7 Media Center? Drop us a line below. Remember it may take some time to respond due to the number of requests each week but rest assured we’re looking into your question as quickly as possible.