Hacking Windows 7 Media Center

Hidden Media Center Switches for Windows 7

by Michael Healy @ 9:00 am on August 12th, 2009 in programs, windows 7 with 17 Comments and Permalink

windows 7 logo Wish you could start Windows 7 Media Center without the startup animation, in media only mode or without the shutdown options? Missing Remote has the details on some undocumented startup switches that will allow you to do that and more. Windows 7 Media Center comes packed with a number of ways to start up your Media Center experience just the way you want.

no chrome

Here’s the list of switches provided by Andrew Cherry and Missing Remote:

  • /nostartupanimation – disables the startup animation
  • /noshutdownui – removes the shutdown item from Tasks
  • /mediamode – start in “media only mode” with no minimize/close buttons
  • /widescreen – force widescreen mode
  • /nochrome – launch windowed mode without the containing window
  • /playallmusic – Play all music at startup
  • /playfavmusic – Play favorite music at startup
  • /playfavslideshow – Play favorite slideshow at startup
  • /playfavslideshowwithmusic – Same as above with music
  • /playslideshow – Play all slideshows
  • /playslideshowwithmusic – Same as above with music
  • /screensaver – Start media center in screensaver mode
  • /configuress – Start media center at configuring screen saver menu

To enable these switches, right click the Media Center shortcut you’d like to modify and enter the switches you’d like to enable in the target input box.

target

Multiple switches can be enabled by entering multiple switches separated with a space in the target input. Now launching your Windows 7 Media Center through this particular shortcut will open the program just the way you like.

That’s all there is to modifying your Media Center shortcuts. We’ll be covering even more customization in the future so be sure to subscribe to Hack7MC!

17 Comments


David
Comment #2646 from David [Reply]

I wish you could do this on the extenders.

Comment left August 12, 2009 at 9:48 am with Permalink

Noname
Comment #2648 from Noname [Reply]

start direct live TV:
%SystemRoot%\ehome\ehshell.exe /homepage:VideoFullscreen.xml /PushStartPage:True – Live TV

Comment left August 12, 2009 at 11:06 am with Permalink

Geo
Comment #2649 from Geo [Reply]

start live TV with the last seen channel
ehshell.exe /homepage:VideoFullscreen.xml /PushStartPage:True – Live TV:

Comment left August 12, 2009 at 11:08 am with Permalink

rsvr85
Comment #2651 from rsvr85 [Reply]

Helpful list, especially nostartupanimation, thanks :)

Comment left August 12, 2009 at 11:11 am with Permalink

Svish
Comment #2653 from Svish [Reply]

Nice list. How can you add the switches to a pinned shortcut/application? And how do you leave media mode if there are no close button?

Comment left August 12, 2009 at 2:06 pm with Permalink

Michael Healy
@Reply #2658 from Michael Healy [Reply]

To pin these to the taskbar you could just create a shortcut and drag it to the taskbar to create a new pinned item. Leaving media mode would need to be done through the shutdown menu in tasks. I wouldn’t recommend using both mediamode and noshutdownui together.

Comment left August 12, 2009 at 5:09 pm with Permalink

Alan Cooke
Comment #2654 from Alan Cooke [Reply]

Certainly appreciate you linking to our material. However, copying the entire article is not very cool. We would appreciate it if you just use a snippet of the article and not the entire article when reporting news.

You, as a website owner, should know that original work takes time and effort and getting your content ganked is frustrating.

Comment left August 12, 2009 at 2:43 pm with Permalink

Michael Healy
@Reply #2657 from Michael Healy [Reply]

Actually I use the Creative Commons 3.0 copyright and allow anyone to copy, modify, reproduce, resell, or mutilate my content in any way they’d like as long as credit is provided.

The only part copied verbatim from Missing Remote was the list itself. I’ll change the descriptions.

Comment left August 12, 2009 at 4:43 pm with Permalink

Steve D.
Comment #2655 from Steve D. [Reply]

Very useful. Thanks!

Please keep updating!

Comment left August 12, 2009 at 2:55 pm with Permalink

Lillgreen
Comment #2661 from Lillgreen [Reply]

Thanks for these great tips.
I stuck in the noanimation and it works great when launching from the start menu, howevever it does not work with the green button on my remote.
Any ideas on how to fix that?

Comment left August 12, 2009 at 8:48 pm with Permalink

Steve D
@Reply #2706 from Steve D [Reply]

That is because the green button doesn’t point to your shortcut.

I would also love to figure out how to do this.

Comment left August 15, 2009 at 9:41 am with Permalink

Mikey-Z
@Reply #3231 from Mikey-Z [Reply]

Warning: Only try the directions below if you are comfortable editing the registry. This has only been tested on two win 7 RC x32 installs:

Launch regedit and search for MCE.PerUserSettings. I believe there are two different keys… look for one that has 20-30 entries.

It’ll be listed under REGDWORD “enableStartupAnimation” and “enableStartupSound”. Default value is “1″ (for enable)… set to “0″ to disable.

Comment left September 14, 2009 at 4:47 am with Permalink

DiGi
Comment #2669 from DiGi [Reply]

it is possible to live tv with a specific list of favorites to start?

Comment left August 13, 2009 at 12:32 pm with Permalink

Anonymous
Comment #2676 from Anonymous [Reply]

MCEKeySender from Ryan’s Findings

Comment Moderated: Nice tool, I’ll check it out but would have been better to send it through the contact form as it’s a bit much for a comment.

Comment left August 13, 2009 at 8:28 pm with Permalink

ronco
Comment #2705 from ronco [Reply]

So, did anyone have an answer for “Lillgreens” question?
I also control my HTPC media center using only the remote, and it would be great if I could launch Media Center with the green button on the remote and still use these startup switches. Any ideas? Registry hacks would be fine with me.

Comment left August 15, 2009 at 6:21 am with Permalink

Anonymous
Comment #3957 from Anonymous [Reply]

To get the no animation and no sound on startup to work from the remote use the reg edit suggestion from above, to speed up finding the entries just use the search function within regedit.exe. Change both values to 0 and you’re done. Confirmed working with windows 7 RTM from MSDN

Comment left October 12, 2009 at 5:01 pm with Permalink

Michael
Comment #5411 from Michael [Reply]

How do you start specific playlists from the command line, like for Task Scheduler?

Comment left December 6, 2009 at 12:06 pm with Permalink

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