How to Disable (Uninstall and Remove) Windows Media Center in Vista
Windows Media Center is meant to serve as an application that turns PC into a home-entertainment hub, which can be controlled by a special remote control with a dominant Green Button. Windows Media Center (MCE) is a feature included in Windows Vista Home Premium and Vista Ultimate editions. However, not all users of Vista Ultimate or Home Premium will require the Media Center. But, users cannot uninstall Vista Media Center from Control Panel Uninstall Programs and Features or turn Windows Features on or off page as there is no Windows Media Center entry.
Even though Windows Media Centre is integrated part of the operating system and cannot be uninstalled or removed from Vista, the WMC services can be turned off and disabled so that it won’t run or start even when WMC button is pressed or when users click from Start Menu, exactly as if Media Center is not installed. In fact, there are more than one way to disable Windows Media Center or prevent it from running in Vista.
Disable Windows Media Center Services
Open Services (type services.msc into Start Search). Locate all services related to Windows Media Center, such as Windows Media Center Extender Service, Windows Media Center Receiver Service, Windows Media Center Scheduler Service and Windows Media Center Service Launcher, and any other services started with “eh” as command names, then set their Startup Type to Disabled.
Stop Windows Media Center Services from Start Up
Run MSConfig (System Configuration) and go to Startup tab. Uncheck the item entries which has the ehome as path to the command, such as ehTray.exe. This will prevent MCE related services to be startup up. To be safe, you still need to disable WMC services as above.
Use Non-Premium editions of Vista
A radical and possibly costly workaround, by switching to use Windows Vista Home Basic or Windows Vista Business which do not bundled Windows Media Center as a package.
Disable Windows Media Center using Group Policy (or Registry)
Run Group Policy Object Editor (GPEdit.msc), expand Computer Configuration (for per-machine settings if you want disable for all users on the computer) or User Configuration (for per-user settings if you want to disable for logged on user only), then expand Administrative Templates, and finally Windows Components, and select Windows Media Center. Change the setting for Do not allow Windows Media Center to run to Enabled. Once WMC disable policy is set, the following message will appear whenever users trying to run Windows Media Center.
Windows cannot open this program because it has been prevented by a software restriction policy. For more information contact your system administrator.
Windows Vista Home Premium edition does not come with GPEdit.msc (Group Policy Editor), however the policy that block MCE from running can still be set manually in registry, and will be honored by the operating system. To set the policy registry key, open Registry Editor, and navigate to the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft
Right click on Microsoft and create a New Key named WindowsMediaCenter (no space in between). Under “WindowsMediaCenter” registry branch, create a new DWORD (32-bit) Value named MediaCenter, and set its value data to 1.
Alternatively, simply run the following command in elevated privilege command prompt:
reg add HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\WindowsMediaCenter /v MediaCenter /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
To revert and re-enable MCE, simply delete the WindowsMediaCenter registry key created in Registry Editor, or run the following command in elevated privilege command prompt:
reg delete HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\WindowsMediaCenter /v MediaCenter /f
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Entries (RSS)
October 19th, 2009 17:27
Referring to Raver
May 15th, 2009 23:22
There is a much easier way to disable Media Center.
Go to start -> default programs -> Set program access and computer defaults
Select Custom and deselect the checkbox on the right of Windows Media Center(deselect “Enable access to this program”)
September 30th, 2009 22:17
I wanted to do this so that media center wouldn’t pop up when I press “play” on my keyboard but all this guide does is show a popup saying it cant be launched,… I want play to pause/play spotify or winamp!! Why is there no guide for this…
August 6th, 2009 22:57
[...] Originally Posted by Tripledrop Mine works really well, thanks a lot!! One issue though, when I press home, mediaportal loads up, but so does windows media centre. Is there a way to stop this happening? Glad it works for you. To avoid starting up windows media center, try this. [...]
June 30th, 2009 22:48
Thank you a lot!
I have Vista Home Premium and I searched for solution for 2 weeks.
Raver and the others – if it was that easy I dont think that this article would be published. First I disable MC from startup menu…then I edited services…
But the only that worked is creating the key in the registry and using command prompt! After reboot the system opened the warning that MC could not be started. But it is better than having MC open over everything every time!
Thank you *_*
May 15th, 2009 23:22
There is a much easier way to disable Media Center.
Go to start -> default programs -> Set program access and computer defaults
Select Custom and deselect the checkbox behind Media Center.
Thats all Folks!
April 8th, 2009 01:00
Just wanted to say that this is a great piece! Very helpful. I’ll definitely be referencing it in the future.
Cheers,
Ron
Windows Outreach Team
April 7th, 2009 03:19
hey folks is there any way by which i can re-install windows media centre?
formatted the pc and now mediadirect button won’nt work?
February 27th, 2009 00:31
Thank you!
December 7th, 2008 03:26
ich habe genau das gegenteilige Problem, der Media Center wird mir nach einer Neuinstallation von Vista Home nicht mehr angezeigt und ich kann auch damit nicht mehr arbeiten, die oben benannten Darlegungen haben ich benutzt um den Center wieder in Gang zu bringen, hat mir allerdings nicht weiter geholfen, viellecht kann mir hier einer einen Rat geben. Danke schonmal im Voraus.
November 26th, 2008 23:25
[...] Originally Posted by flyte Anyone able to get this remote to work? PC Remote Control Windows Media Center XP Controller – (eBay.ca item 320319994125 end time 26-Nov-08 01:34:04 EST) I am confused on how to setup a generic IR receiver/remote in media portal. Where would I attempt to configure this in the remote options page in Media Portal Configuration? An official Microsoft remote should work without setup out of the box.. at least mine did No driver installation needed, No Key mapping or other difficult things to do.. plug it in and it works. It is if you want more things to do with your remote like opening and closing of other programs then it starts to get complicated. I’m just looking for a remote/receiver to drive MediaPortal, and nothing else. I don’t think the one I posted is an official Microsoft product (i.e.: it isn’t made by MS), however it is advertised to work with Microsoft stuff. Hopefully it works… What would be the necessary configuration steps in MP Confiuration / Remote Tab? Would I just try each of the tabs on that settings page? Just leave everything on default.. probably the remote works with the standard Microsoft Windows driver, and then you should be OK. A few additional things you should do: To make the green button working make sure you install Mptray. This tiny app, will make sure that if Mediaportal is not running, pressing the green button starts Mediaportal.. while running mediaportal pressing the green button will bring you back to the home screen. If you running Windows Vista Home premium or Ultimate, beside Mediaportal, the green button will also start Windows Media Center at the same time. Here is how you can prevent that from happening: How to Disable (Uninstall and Remove) Windows Media Center in Vista My Digital Life [...]
November 24th, 2008 21:15
Did all this a while ago. Now I want to re-start media center and reverted all steps, but no show. The media center button is still there, but it won’t start. Manually clicking on ehTray.exe does nothing either.
October 31st, 2008 22:33
[...] at the same time! So it works, you should only disable media center. Here in this page: How to Disable (Uninstall and Remove) Windows Media Center in Vista My Digital Life Disable in dos screen (or batch file): reg add HKLMSOFTWAREPoliciesMicrosoftWindowsMediaCente [...]
October 23rd, 2008 00:44
LoL why not install Business Pack instead of Ultimate.. then u dun get Media Center and all of its crap
:D
July 27th, 2008 03:42
thank you, running sage tv and just wanted to get rid off media center for when i use the remote control buttons, thanks
July 5th, 2008 12:08
when i try and open msconfig instead of msconfig windows media center comes up. what is the problem?
July 3rd, 2008 08:26
[...] I am going to try movie maker and the DVD burner. As for WME you can disable it in services. How to Disable (Uninstall and Remove) Windows Media Center in Vista
July 3rd, 2008 03:56
[...] I am going to try movie maker and the DVD burner. As for WME you can disable it in services. How to Disable (Uninstall and Remove) Windows Media Center in Vista
May 15th, 2008 00:27
[...] removed the Media Center "ehome" file from startup using msconfig as per the instructions here. But regardless of what I do WMC will not die. It’s driving me bonkers! Can anyone help? [...]
February 28th, 2008 02:25
ty for this article, helped me immensely ^^