MCE 2005 installatoin help

[bballdude0507]

I tried doing installation of mce, choosing the upgrade option. When it asked for the sp2 cd, i didnt know what to do so i clicked cancel. Now i know i was supposed to put in the 1st one. But whenever i do the installation agian it doesnt ask for the second cd anymore and it jsut installs xp pro. I know i have a valid key cuz the first time it asked for a second cd. Can someone help me with this? i saw some people sayign that you can edit the registry and that will make it work. I did that but i didnt try to install because i was afraid that it might ruin my system or something so i wanted to see if anyone can assure me that it will work if i edit the reg by adding HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\WPA\MediaCenter and then making a DWORD "Installed" with value "1".

[Walchinc]

Please refer to my post installation script

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=65305

1 Copy the script to a floppy disk and change it to your country code, area code, Admin Password, Name, Orgaanisation, Product Key, Computer Name and Documents and Setting drive letter. Mine is Drive F

If you do not have a floppy disk drive (like Dell) copy to the main directory of the pen drive or image the cd and place the sif into the i386 folder with the use of ultraiso or WinISO

2 Copy all the essential documents and settings to a external media

3 Format the hard drive and Partation it in to three. C:\ = system d:\ = Documents and Settings and E:\ = Backup for ghosting across with Norton Ghost

Now boot from the MCE disc one with the first screen "Setup is inspecting your computer'shardware" now insert floppy disc straight away and at some stage it should ask you to validate you previous operating system.

Now insert Win XP, 2000 ME or 98 CD as your previous operating system and confirm acceptace, when finish and when asked, replace previous operating disc with disc one of MCE and carry on with installation.

This should ask you for Disk 2, then Disk one again to finalise installation.

My previous XP Pro silent installation script for MCE as the first disc was XP Pro caused errors in visual design appearances and errors updating, installation additional components and never installed media centre edition components.

I do not trust upgrading installation, this causes errors in the registry, instablity of operating system and visual design and directorys installation reverting back to the old style, especially 98/Me operating system.

I re-installed XP Home for a friend of mine, the system was a complete mess.

Edited January 29, 2006 by Walchinc

[bballdude0507]

I was hoping to just upgrade. Is there a way to do this without formatting my hard disk? such as with editing the registry as i have above?

Edited January 29, 2006 by bballdude0507

[Walchinc]

Upgrades are not worth it because of the system stability issues. The only way here is to create a another partition split into 2 Instead of upgrading XP to MCE select "New Installation". This will give you the opportunity to make XP as a back operating system and MCE as the main system. This is my procedure if anything goes wrong, XP operating system can give me opportunity backup my files to a external media .

If you like to use the DOS based installation use the procedure above but do not format the hard drive and select a different partition to install. The upgrade procedure will scan the hard drive and find existing operating system and allow you to select another partiton to install MCE.

Edited January 29, 2006 by Walchinc

[bballdude0507]

That seems to complicated for me. Thanks for your help though. I might just try editing the registry and see if that works. What sort of stabilityissues are you talking of?

Edited January 29, 2006 by bballdude0507

[Walchinc]

The stability issues are about look and feel, program crashes, conflicting files, not loading programs, system registry conflicts.

Futhermore upto 300MB extra backup when upgrading to another operating system, just a waste of space.

When I tested XP Pro script and tried to install MCE components, there was no option in the add and remove components.

Any registry changes "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\WPA\MediaCenter and then making a DWORD "Installed" with value "1". may not copy and the files across and there are more registry values needed to run MCE interface and programs and settings.

Edited January 29, 2006 by Walchinc

[Narly]

I was hoping to just upgrade. Is there a way to do this without formatting my hard disk? such as with editing the registry as i have above?

if you managed to get the first CD of the upgrade complete (ie. you have finished installing XP Pro) you can get windows to prompt for the MCE setup files again by entering in the following line in the start > run window:

rundll32.exe setupapi.dll,InstallHinfSection Freestyle 132 medctroc.inf

Then it reinstalls the Media Center files to the C:\Win\eHome directory.

[bionicman]

Your on the right path. Is your PC now saying 'Media Center Edition' in the System Properties after doing the .reg hack?

To save you having to work out a whole list of the remaining parts of MCE just download these .inf files & extract them with WinRAR to C:\Windows\Inf

Now go to Control Panel/ Add/Remove Prorams /Add/Remove Windows Components.

In the list you will now see 'Sonic DVD and CD Burning' & 'Windows Digital Media Enhacements'. Make sure they are both ticked & click on 'Next'

You will be prompted for disc 1 first then disc 2. Note that disc 1 must your original disc that you installed the PC with not the MCE disc 1. Then your done!

I do this method because many other recipies the DVD burning doesn't work.

Good Luck!

inf_Files.rar

Edited January 30, 2006 by bionicman

[bballdude0507]

Thanks narly and bionicman. I have a few questions though. Narly, you have a comma in that statement that im supposed to put into run, are those two seperate things or should i enter them as one? also, ever since i screwed up the media center installation, some programs such as wordpad and paint stopped working, im just wondering if thats supposed to happen. After i do that hack, it still says windows xp pro. Where am i supposed to get the .int files that you're telling me to download, bionicman?

[bionicman]

Firstly the .inf files are sitting at the bottom of my last post. Make sure you extract them with WinRar as instructed as the inf folder is hidden in Windows XP.

If you go back to the Registry now does it say the DWORD is 0 again? Are you trying this on an XP Retail/OEM or Corp copy?

The value can only be changed (& stay changed) by using a PE boot disc like Bart. Barts PE disc is very simple to make.

http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/

After that restart your PC & Boot directly from your Bart PE Disc. When fully booted up select 'Run' then 'Regedit' & navigate to:

Click HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE. At the top select 'File' 'Load Hive' then find your way to c:\windows\system32\config\system,name it “temp”.

Expand the 'temp' menu to WPA & then you can edit the keys. After you've done this you MUST go 'File' 'Unload Hive' to save it.

Reboot in to XP then it should say 'Media Center Edition'

[bballdude0507]

Hey narly, once i finish the installation of the second cd, do i just restart and ill have media cetner? i know that after installing the media center it wants the first cd again so how do i get that to happen with what you told me to do?

[bballdude0507]

Actually narly, your way worked now and i have media center edition and it looks awesome. My only problem is now i cant find the actual media center application anywhere (its not in accessories > entertainment). Does anyone have any suggestions on where to find it?

EDIT: yeah i found it yesterday. it was in accessories but at the very bottom so i didnt see it. Now if you could help me in getting mediac enter to play mpeg-4 videos, that would be awesome. I have another thread on that too but no ones replying.

Edited February 4, 2006 by bballdude0507

[bionicman]

All Programs/Accessories/Media Center

I would suggest you right click on the green icon & 'Pin to Start menu' then you won't lose it again.

Edited February 4, 2006 by bionicman