I have installed MCE 2005 on my PC at home that is running a standard copy of Windows XP Professional. This is not my main MCE machine as I have a dedicated MCE machine that resides in my lounge and is used to watch TV, record TV, watch DVD's, videos, listen to music, play picture slideshows etc.etc.. Basically all the good things that MCE can do. My other PC resides in my study and this is the one used in this little experiment.I came across a few posts on several other forums regarding running MCE on Windows XP Home or Professional and Windows Server 2003 and I thought I would like to give it a crack. The goal is to get MCE 2005 fully operational and be able to apply any MCE 2005 update. This works on Windows XP Home and Professional . It might work on Windows Server 2003. It will not work on a corporate licence (generally does not require activation) of XP as you will not be able to change the SystemPrefix so ehshell.exe and a number of other MCE files think they are running on a 'real' MCE PC. Changing this on that version of Windows will return an error message upon reboot indicating the PID is invalid for the media type and you will not be able to login to Windows. I have not gone into that here as modifying these files is a breach of your licence agreement, even if you have a valid licence. What I can tell you is that it can be done. All you have to do is scratch around the internet a little.What is listed below has been compiled from a number of posts on other forums. Credit goes to Cactus and Turge for most of this. All I have done is taken little bits and improved them as well as added some other information. Also, just a warning regarding the piracy implications of this. I have valid licences for both Windows XP and Windows Media Center 2005. I do not condone piracy. MCE 2005 is a great product. Go and buy it if you want to use it.What you need:
If you already have a working MCE 2005 machine and wish to perform this on another PC that you own, you can skip step 1 and perform steps 2, 3 and 4 on your current MCE rather. Below is the process I followed:
1) Do a normal installation of Windows XP Media Center Edition. Format your drive and do a fresh install. Check if everything is working. Do not proceed if your MCE is not in working order.
2) Extract the Install MCE 2005 on Windows XP Home or Professional Script Pack to a folder and execute 1 - Make Directories.bat
3) Copy the following files from the respective locations in
C:\Windows to the locations created by the batch file as listed below:C:\MCE2K5 Install\Copy Files\Windows\inf\plusoc.inf
C:\MCE2K5 Install\Copy Files\Windows\inf\sonic.inf
C:\MCE2K5 Install\Copy Files\Windows\inf\sysoc.inf
C:\MCE2K5 Install\Copy Files\Windows\inf\medctroc.infC:\MCE2K5 Install\Copy Files\Windows\system32\ehOCGen.dll
C:\MCE2K5 Install\Copy Files\Windows\system32\encdec.dll
C:\MCE2K5 Install\Copy Files\Windows\system32\medctroc.dll
C:\MCE2K5 Install\Copy Files\Windows\system32\mpeg2data.ax
C:\MCE2K5 Install\Copy Files\Windows\system32\msvidctl.dll
C:\MCE2K5 Install\Copy Files\Windows\system32\plusoc.dll
C:\MCE2K5 Install\Copy Files\Windows\system32\quartz.dll
C:\MCE2K5 Install\Copy Files\Windows\system32\sbe.dll
C:\MCE2K5 Install\Copy Files\Windows\system32\sbeio.dll
C:\MCE2K5 Install\Copy Files\Windows\system32\vbicodec.ax
C:\MCE2K5 Install\Copy Files\Windows\system32\wstpager.ax
C:\MCE2K5 Install\Copy Files\Windows\system32\wstrenderer.axC:\MCE2K5 Install\Copy Files\Windows\system32\CatRoot\{F750E6C3-38EE-11D1-85E5-00C04FC295EE}\plus.cat
C:\MCE2K5 Install\Copy Files\Windows\system32\CatRoot\{F750E6C3-38EE-11D1-85E5-00C04FC295EE}\sonic.cat
C:\MCE2K5 Install\Copy Files\Windows\system32\CatRoot\{F750E6C3-38EE-11D1-85E5-00C04FC295EE}\mediactr.cat4) Save the entire
C:\MCE 2005 Install folder to another drive or somewhere else.5) Install your copy of Windows XP. Format your drive and do a fresh install. Include all your drivers and everything else you would do to get your PC working 100%.
6) Install XP SP2. If you are using a slipstreamed version of XP with SP2 you can skip this step.
7) Install Media Player 10 and a DVD decoder.
8) Install the .Net Framework 1.1 and then the .Net Framework 1.1 SP1.9) Install the .Net Framework SDK 1.1.10) Run
XPLite or
WfpAdmin and disable Windows File Protection.11) Copy the entire
C:\MCE 2005 Install folder from the location that you saved it.12) Ensure that the
C:\MCE 2005 Install\ 2 - Bart PE Copy Files.bat exists in the
C:\MCE 2005 Install folder
. Do not execute it just yet. If it is not there you can extract it from the
Install MCE 2005 on Windows XP Home or Professional Script Pack again.13) Create your
BartPE disk and boot up with it.14) Run
C:\MCE 2005 Install\ 2 - Bart PE Copy Files.bat.15) Run
regedit.exe.16) Load the system hive from
C:\windows\system32\config\system. See
this page on the Microsoft website for instructions on loading and unloading hives. Use
test as your
keyname for the hive.17) Modify the following registry entries in the loaded system hive. This changes the SystemPrefix so ehshell.exe and a number of other MCE files think they are running on a 'real' MCE PC.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\WPA\MediaCenter "Installed"=dword:00000001
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup "SystemPrefix"=hex:ce,13,00,00,00,00,3e,c818) Unload the system hive and reboot your PC back into Windows.19) Check your system properties. It should say
Media Center Edition. This means the registry change worked.
20) Ensure that the C:\MCE 2005 Install\ 3 - Install MCE.bat exists in the C:\MCE 2005 Install folder. Do not execute it just yet. If it is not there you can extract it from the Install MCE 2005 on Windows XP Home or Professional Script Pack again.
21) Ensure that the C:\MCE 2005 Install\ MCE.reg exists in the C:\MCE 2005 Install folder. Do not merge this file. It gets merged by the batch file in the next script. If it is not there you can extract it from the Install MCE 2005 on Windows XP Home or Professional Script Pack again.
22) Run
C:\MCE 2005 Install\ 3 - Install MCE.bat. When prompted for
mediactr.cab point it to the file
mediactr.cab on your MCE 2005 CD2 CD. 23) You should now have a working Media Center 2005 PC. All that remains to do is install the various updates for MCE in order of release. I usually install one at time with a reboot in between as I have had issues in the past when I installed them all in one go with a reboot at the end.
That's it. You are done.
Good luck!