Hi,
For weeks I've been trying to get MCE 2005 to work on a Windows 2003 Server. Don't ask why, I just needed a server instead of an XP box. Many people suggested loads of approaches but none of them worked; they all had some kind of problem mostly Tuner and Video related. After testing a lot I found an easy way (imho) to get this to work. Everything (really everything) seems to work. I guess I don't need to tell you none of this is supported by Microsoft or any OEM reseler and I'm not sure if this is legal. But then again I have valid licenses for both the MCE and the Win2K3 software so I guess I'm save Best part of it is that you don't need to patch any of the original files!
This is the way I got it to work:
What you *need*:
Here's how to do it:
First things first, format your HDD This is always the best way to start. Now do a normal installation of your Windows XP Media Center Edition software. Check if everything is working. If so, copy the following files:
Now start regedit and export the following keys:
Having saved these files/registry exports to your USB key of something reformat your drive again
Now install Windows 2003 Server and apply build 1260 (or newer) of SP1. Install the Microsoft.NET framework 1.0.3705 and go to WindowsUpdate to get every update available (if any).
Update all drivers you updated on your Windows XP version and ignore any WHQL message. Now you need to disable Windows File Protection somehow. I used XPLite for it but I'm sure there are easier ways of doing that. Now copy all files you saved from you XP box (overwriting any existing files) and register them with RegSvr32. Place them in the same location as they were on your XP Box. Take a look at your Event Viewer to make sure they aren't roled back to their original versions due to WFP. Also import the two exported registry keys. Now add a the C:\Windows\eHome\ folder to your path environment and we are ready to rock-n-roll
So lets install MCE. Just insert your MCE CD2 and start the following command:
When it asks for files point it at the MEDIACTR.CAB and let it run. After it completes wait a few minutes (or wait until the ngen process ends) and reboot. Now again copy the saved files from you XP box over the existing files and register them again. Now reboot you PC. Your done Just start MCE to start the wizard.
If you want the add-ons that came with MCE2K5 you may want to run the following commands:
That's all folks. Nothing to it
To get the MCE Remote to work wasn't that hard, the EPG worked like a charme (and yet I choose to use MCEGuider) and even messenger worked after installing it. So wow, this is what I wanted. Hope some people benefit from this info. If not I still had great fun diggig in to it.
Cheers
Le Cactus
Note to self (and others):
Awesome Saved me a lot of work. Did you have any problems with the remote? Or did the Win2k3 SP1 fix those problems?
Gulp...
The remote was a hole different story. I had to hack this quite a bit to get it to work, but it does now.
What I did was delete the SP1.CAB and changed the installation source, this way Windows couldn't find the Win2K3 version of files. After that I replaced several inf files with the WinXP ones and choose to update the drivers. When Windows asks for the location of the files I pointed it to the WinXP CD.
Files that were replaced:
All these files (and the inf files reffering to them) were replace with the Windows XP MCE version (build 2180) and after that everything works exactly as it does with Windows XP. As always, this only works if Windows File Protection is turned off, and if SP1.CAB is deleted.
I hope someone finds an easy way of doing this, replacing the drivers this way wasn't fun andit will cost me over an hour to do this again on a clean system.
Anyways, hopes this help
Cactus
Here is my setup:
Folder structure:
¦ Install.bat¦ mediactr.cab¦ plus.cab¦ sonic.cab+---Copy Files¦ +---Windows¦ +---Inf¦ ¦ medctroc.inf (extracted from ¦ ¦ plusoc.inf¦ ¦ sonic.inf¦ ¦ sysoc.inf¦ +---System32¦ ¦ ehOCGen.dll¦ ¦ encdec.dll¦ ¦ medctroc.dll¦ ¦ mpeg2data.ax¦ ¦ msvidctl.dll¦ ¦ plusoc.dll¦ ¦ quartz.dll¦ ¦ sbe.dll¦ ¦ sbeio.dll¦ ¦ vbicodec.ax¦ ¦ wstpager.ax¦ ¦ wstrenderer.ax¦ ¦ wstrendr.ax¦ +---CatRoot¦ +---{F750E6C3-38EE-11D1-85E5-00C04FC295EE}¦ mediactr.cat¦ plus.cat¦ sonic.cat+---ehShell backup¦ ehshell.exe+---Framewrk¦ 1.0.3705.0.exe+---Registry¦ MCE.reg+---Tools sn.exe (from SDK, see below)
rem Install .NET Framework 1.0 if neededIf NOT EXIST "%systemroot%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.0.3705\ngen.exe" call :InstallFramework
rem Copy Needed Filesxcopy /E /I /Y /H "Copy Files\Windows" %systemroot%
rem Register DLLsregsvr32 /s %systemroot%\eHome\custsat.dllregsvr32 /s %systemroot%\System32\encdec.dllregsvr32 /s %systemroot%\System32\msvidctl.dllregsvr32 /s %systemroot%\System32\quartz.dllregsvr32 /s %systemroot%\System32\sbe.dll
rem Set Path
rem Install MCErundll32 syssetup,SetupInfObjectInstallAction Freestyle 128 medctroc.inf
rem Install Add-Onsrem rundll32 syssetup,SetupInfObjectInstallAction PlusTheme 128 plusoc.infrem rundll32 syssetup,SetupInfObjectInstallAction PlusSpac 128 plusoc.infrem rundll32 syssetup,SetupInfObjectInstallAction PlusGold 128 plusoc.inf rem rundll32 syssetup,SetupInfObjectInstallAction PlusDavn 128 plusoc.inf rem rundll32 syssetup,SetupInfObjectInstallAction PlusNatr 128 plusoc.inf rem rundll32 syssetup,SetupInfObjectInstallAction PlusMpix 128 plusoc.inf rem rundll32 syssetup,SetupInfObjectInstallAction PlusDancer 128 plusoc.inf rem rundll32 syssetup,SetupInfObjectInstallAction PlusParty 128 plusoc.inf rem rundll32 syssetup,SetupInfObjectInstallAction PlusAudio 128 plusoc.inf rem rundll32 syssetup,SetupInfObjectInstallAction PlusCDLM 128 plusoc.inf
rem Copy Needed Files Againxcopy /E /I /Y /H "Copy Files\Windows" %systemroot%
rem Register DLLs Againregsvr32 /s %systemroot%\eHome\custsat.dllregsvr32 /s %systemroot%\System32\encdec.dllregsvr32 /s %systemroot%\System32\msvidctl.dllregsvr32 /s %systemroot%\System32\quartz.dllregsvr32 /s %systemroot%\System32\sbe.dll
Rem Backup Original ehShellren %systemroot%\ehome\ehshell.exe *.bak
rem Copy Patched ehShellcopy "ehShell Backup\ehshell.exe" %systemroot%\ehome
Tools\sn -VlTools\sn -Vr *
rem Setup Registryregedit /s Registry\MCE.reg
rem Run MCE%systemroot%\eHome\ehShell.exe
exit
:InstallFrameworkFramewrk\1.0.3705.0.exe /Q
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Extensibility]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Extensibility\Applications]@=""
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Extensibility\Categories]@=""
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Extensibility\Entry Points]@=""
ehShell.exe:
Credits go out to Cactus, Raphael and tmksnyder.
Great! It isn't a MSI installer package yet, but were getting there
Sidenote:
The hole modding of the ehShell.exe can be avoided by using the using the right SystemPrefix DWORD witch one could have exported from HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup of a *real* Windows XP MCE machine. Modding the ehShell.exe will work of course, but you need to mod some more executables from the Plus! package as well if you want to use them. By using the right SystemPrefix ehSHell.exe (and the programs from the Plus! package) thinks it's on a valid version of Windows XP MCE and somehow Windows 2003 Server doesn't seem to be affected by it. All works well, RDP, Windows update and all other great feature of Win2K3.
Also people; backup your original sysoc.inf (\Windows\Inf folder) cause replacing this file with a Windows XP version could really really mess up the "Add/Remove Windows Components" bit of "Add/Remove Programs". Replacing it *will* give you the ability to install the Windows Messenger (point it to a Windows XP installation CD) but it's not nessecary though, Turges guide/setup will also work without it. For messenger you can also just download/install MSN Messenger.
/me likes to keep things clean
@Turge: Do you have an easier way to get the remote working? It's costing me a lot of time/reboots to redo the trick.
Thanks, cheers,
Modding the ehShell is required if you're running a corporate version of an OS (XP/2003), since you can't change the system prefix. Changing this, or running TweakNT will return an error message upon reboot indicating the PID is invalid for the media type.
And yes, it does create a problem when installing MCE Powertoys, but these can be modded as well to install on any OS.
As for the remote, I'll have an official Microsoft MCE remote in 2 weeks, so I'll let you know then!
Steve
Ahhh..., that makes sence, I hadn't thought of that. True that that needs some modding. But it doesn't run on any OS that way! It won't run on a valid Windows XP MCE
I run Retail versions myself so I didn't run into these problems. True I played around with TweakNT and it gave me BSOD. I found this somewhere to get them Plus! Package programs to work. They were from the original "Rafael's MCE Exposed Guide" So credit goes to Vortex? Use an Hex editor to change the bytes 74 08 to EB 00:
CDLM.EXE: Offset 0xAED9DANCER.EXE: Offset 0x4DA9PARTYMODE.EXE: Offset 0x123E4DAVINCI.SCR: Offset 0x7F5EMYPIXDX.SCR: Offset 0x6B84NATURE.SCR: Offset 0x88F5AUDIOCONVERTER.EXE: Offset 0xEE5BWPGLDFSH.SCR: Offset 0xA4D9SPACE.SCR: Offset 0x75F3
As stated b4, you can't even do this if you have licenses for both the MCE and the Win2K3 software cause changing the software violates the license agreement. Just so you know
Cheers,Cactus
Thanks.. I came across this a few weeks ago but couldn't find it. Rafael removed it from his site.
Is it possible to install Windows Media Center Edition 2005 with/ontop a Windows XP Professional Corporate/Volume License Edition?
Im a system builder and need to test lots of different configurations and activation is really getting on my nerves when I change network cards, video cards, RAM, Processors, etc.
Someone mentioned in it in this thread, I wondered if anyone had achieved it?
Thanks,
Andrew
I have MCE setup on XP and 2K3, both corporate. So, yes, check my post above. The instructions are basically the same as for Retail, except you need to modify ehShell.exe to run on non-MCE OS instead, as described in my post.
Call me stupid, but I dont have the foggiest about what you're saying about how to decompile eHome. The rest I can just about work out, but is there anyway you could elaborate on the decompile bit?
Thanks
Turge's guide is almost perfect for me, modded the Ehshell etc. but i'm running into some problems:
I missed a file on a clean XP-pro corp system upgraded to SP2.
It seems the last app (sn.exe) is dependent on it: Msvcr70.dll
I've added it to my copy\windows\system32
I've found out the hard way you need .NET 1.0 otherwise components won't register and you'll get this error message in MC:
the system is missing another file and doesn't play video, the following error is generated by MC:
COMPONENT REGISTRATION FAILURE: Some of the files needed to play audio or video are missing or corrupt. Media center component registration may have failed.
So far I've successfully installed MC on two XP-Pro boxes but the video still won't play on either of them the file starts and the sound works, but MC just doesn't show any picture, see attached screenshot of MCE.
Any ideas to what I'm missing?
Are you referring to these instructions?
If so, I can't elaborate much more. Just let me know which steps you're having a problem with, and the error message if any.
As for the video files, did you include the following files in the Copy Files\Windows\System32 as per my directory structure? If not, you'll need them:
¦ ¦ medctroc.dll¦ ¦ mpeg2data.ax¦ ¦ msvidctl.dll¦ ¦ plusoc.dll¦ ¦ quartz.dll¦ ¦ sbe.dll¦ ¦ sbeio.dll¦ ¦ vbicodec.ax¦ ¦ wstpager.ax¦ ¦ wstrenderer.ax¦ ¦ wstrendr.ax
One thing I may have forgotten to indicate was to disable system file protection. Use this to deactivate it before running the install:
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download859.html
Let me know.
Well, I have my Microsoft MCE 2K5 remote and everything is working except for the green button. This is on my XP Pro though, not 2003. When I press it, it doesn't launch MCE, and when I'm already in MCE, it doesn't bring me to the main menu.
It's working fine in MCE OS though.
I have upgraded the driver to point to the hidserv.inf file on my MCE install (showing driver 2355) and still no luck.
Any ideas?
Turge,
Did everything you told me, I've got the same problem on two systems, the video only plays when I drag one corner of the MCE window (It only seems to refresh then) Also using NVDVD 4.0.58.0 MCE tells me there's no DVD decoder installed.
The decoder checkup gives the NvDVD decoder two thumbs up, somehow I must be missing something.
I've also had the _exact_ same problem on a clean install of MCE 2005 on a laptop with a Mobility 9600. Maybe I've got a corrupt file on my hands?
Kind regards,
Rooq