Welcome to MSDN Blogs Sign in | Join | Help

Suggest a topic for a future blog post....

I am going to keep track of ideas for future blog posts with this blog article.  I'll add my own ideas as they come to me, and I also welcome suggestions from anyone out there who would like to suggest a topic.  I am going to use the following guidelines:

  1. Please use the comment functionality on the blog server to suggest anything you think sounds interesting
  2. Keep in mind my areas of expertise from the tag line of my blog - setup and deployment issues, Windows Media Center, Windows Embedded, the .NET Framework and Visual Studio.  I know about things outside of these areas, but my level of depth of knowledge may vary widely depending on the topic, and I am not going to pretend to be an expert and post about a topic I am not very familiar with
  3. I will remove comments as I create posts that address them

 

Published Friday, July 22, 2005 4:02 PM by astebner

Comments

Friday, July 22, 2005 7:36 PM by Aaron Stebner's WebLog

# Suggest a topic for me to write about

I have been keeping a folder on my computer where I drop emails that I send myself with ideas for future...
Friday, July 29, 2005 3:27 PM by Chris Bilson

# re: Suggest a topic for a future blog post....

I expect that this is outside of your area of expertise, but I was inspired by your last blog post, so here goes...

Several months ago I was trying to get the Pocket PC Emulator running on my laptop, which has Windows Server 2003 SP1 (which has NoExecute). The VPC Service, which the emulator uses fails to start and the driver is flagged by the driver protection service (sorry if I get the name wrong.)

I found some work arounds that suggested disabling /NoExecute to get it to run. I tried this and it didn't work.

Sorry if I am light on details (I gave up trying to get this to work several months ago and haven't tried again since) but the conclusion that I came to was that there was something about running an AMD x64 CPU in 32-bit mode that made NoExecute always on. I don't remember the utility I used to verify this, but I found a utility somewhere that told me NoExecute was on even after changing the NoExecute option and rebooting.

Am I nuts, or is it possible that NoExecute can't be turned off on 64 bit CPUs running 32 bit OSs?
Monday, October 10, 2005 12:04 PM by Neeley

# Upgrades from Works 8

Is theree any Advice on why Office Pro 03 would not upgrade as the Work 8 program is installed on my computer. I have been tossed between MS and Gateway countless times. They are not helping to discover why I can't simply Upgrade, instead of a full Office version.
Wednesday, October 12, 2005 1:42 AM by astebner

# re: Suggest a topic for a future blog post....

Hey Neeley - According to the information I've been able to find so far, Office 2003 Professional Edition should allow you to upgrade from several previous versions of Microsoft Works.

Can you let me know exactly what version of Works that you have installed on your computer? You can do that by using the steps listed at http://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/archive/2005/07/01/434814.aspx to gather a list of installed products, and then send it to me at aaronste (at) microsoft (dot) com.

Wednesday, October 12, 2005 1:46 AM by astebner

# re: Suggest a topic for a future blog post....

Hey Neeley - can you also search for the file named worksup.dll on your computer and if you have it installed can you tell me what version of that file is installed and where it is installed? That is one of items that Office 2003 setup looks for to determine whether or not Works 8 is installed...

Tuesday, October 18, 2005 12:55 PM by amhaskar

# re: Suggest a topic for a future blog post....

I am a student developer at The Ohio State University and I am working with a team to attempt to develop a media center application. The only issue is we don't know how to communicate with the outside world (i.e. a database or something of the like). How about a blog tutorial on creating a C# applet or an ActiveX control that could do something along these lines?

Thanks!
Wednesday, October 26, 2005 7:05 PM by Gerhard

# How to Uninstall .Net 2.0 Beta

I am trying to install .Net 2.0 RC1 but I have to uninstall .Net 2.0 beta first. I click on the link and obviously I go into Add/Remove programs. I go down to .Net 2.0 Beta but suprise there is no "remove" link to click on. How the heck am I gonna install RC1 if I cant get Beta removed.

Any ideas?

Thanks
Gerhard
Thursday, October 27, 2005 10:01 PM by astebner

# re: Suggest a topic for a future blog post....

Hi Gerhard - if you are having trouble removing .NET 2.0 Beta and it is not appearing in Add/Remove Programs, I would suggest that you follow these steps:

1. Download smartmsizap from http://astebner.sts.winisp.net/Tools/smartmsizap.zip
2. Run smartmsizap.exe /p {7A1ADD0C-17F3-47B8-B033-A06E189C835D}

This should forcibly remove the .NET Framework 2.0 beta 2 for you. Please contact me at http://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/contact.aspx if this doesn't work for you.
Tuesday, November 08, 2005 5:40 PM by Niall / mobilewares.net

# re: Suggest a topic for a future blog post....

Hi,

In the .NET Framework 2 documentation - the System.Drawing Namespace has the following section/text (titled 'Caution') :

'Classes within the System.Drawing namespace are not supported for use within a Windows or ASP.NET service. Attempting to use these classes from within one of these application types may produce unexpected problems, such as diminished service performance and run-time exceptions.'

Having used this System.Drawing namespace extensively from ASP/Netv1.1 in the past (to do realtime image generation / and realtime image conversion for various clients including browsers/mobile) - I am confused as to what Microsoft expects us to use instead of this namespace in ASP.NET 2?

While I appreciate that there may be slower performance - the part about 'unexpected problems / runtime exceptions' is a worry.

Are you able to elaborate on this matter - and also explain if there are some classes in this system.drawing namespace that are actually considered safe to use under ASP.NET - or if there are some alternatives?

Thanks - and hope you can help out (or even create a blog entry on this topic)!

Thursday, November 24, 2005 6:43 AM by Jeppe Ravn

# re: Suggest a topic for a future blog post....

Hey Aaron,

I am having load of problems with http ports when using Webmedia player and internet radio. It is very difficult to find out which ports your Windows firewall is blocking and not. As this problem is also occuring when using the media player I think it could be a good topic in the near future. The problem that I have is that sometimes when I turn mce on from standby the media player tells me that I am not connected to the internet and therefor not possible to play the stream. If I then make a repair on the networking card it works again???!!!
Tuesday, December 06, 2005 10:17 AM by mstekel

# re: Suggest a topic for a future blog post....

Hey Aaron.

I have a product that is divided into a core and multiple addins. The addins are released separately from the core. Currently the core and each one of the addins have their own installation (MSI) package. Is there a way to include the addins as (yet unimplemented) features of the core, so that the installation maintenance would be performed through one MSI package? For example, to enable these features by delivering the addins by patches or to use the "Advertise" MSI mechanism?
Wednesday, December 07, 2005 2:53 PM by Ken P

# re: Suggest a topic for a future blog post....

Are there any plans to add HD channels to the MsnTV Remote Record feature?
Thursday, December 08, 2005 3:52 PM by D Thompson

# re: Suggest a topic for a future blog post....

Always a pleasure to read Aaron's blog :)

We supply possibly the coolest MCE platforms in the world, and these can truely see the convergence of the 'digital home' on an 'appropriate platform' - the slim, silent and cool running (<43W typical, <28dBA typical) T2eMP (AVA) PC platform......

we are however concerned that there is no 'easy / public' window to FAQ's re MCE2005 (ie why one of our clients can't get EPG via a shared modem (dial up) - of course we all generally assume broadband is everywhere (which really is needed for online services), but sadly BB is not available (nor will be) for some....... so how about an easy to search, free FAQ web - for all MCE users ?

Possible ?

For hardware providers - like us, and software providers - like MS, the public, non-techy, needs real help.... how do we do that ?

Tranquil would back / sponsor and pay for the hosting of such a web, but the content - we only have a small view of what is needed, and the solutions available.


..... welcoming any feedback.
Thursday, December 15, 2005 3:38 PM by XP Media Concerns

# Windows XP Media Center - IIS v5 - FrontPage 2000 Server Exttensions & Dual OSs

Hello:

XP Media Edition 2002

I need immediate and critical response in resolving a FrontPage 2000 Server Extension / IIS Details.

I just purchased an PC that doesn't recognize FrontPage 2000 Server Extensions. IIS v5 can't install the extensions noting unable to locate Personal Web Server, and that Windows 2000 OS and greater can't install 2000 extensions.

If I attempt to download 2002 Server extension I received a message noting the IIS 4+ and greater need to be installed, and I'm already running IIS v5.

I need to install Visual Studio .NET 2003 and will not install without the extensions. My class ends this week and this is CRITICAL.

2nd inquiry relates to whether XP Media Edition supports dual OSs?


Thank you and have a Blessed & Peaceful Day!
Wednesday, December 21, 2005 7:37 PM by David C

# re: Suggest a topic for a future blog post....

I'm at wits end trying to successfully install (or uninstall!) .NET Framework 2.0. No matter what I do, it always hangs at "Registering System.EnterpriseServices.dll." I've tried everything that looks applicable from this site, including all the steps here:

http://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/archive/2005/04/16/408856.aspx

There's no problem with administrative permissions, which looks like the only case resembling what I'm getting. Is there any hope?
Friday, January 13, 2006 1:38 PM by Larry J

# standby after recording

I'm going nuts trying to figure out why my MCE2005 Rollup2 won't go back to sleep after recording. It will if I reboot it, but if I watch Live TV, use the remote to put it in standby, it will wake up to update the EPG, and won't go back to sleep on its own. I can force it using the power button on the remote; it just won't do it on its own. If I close the MCE shell, it will go to sleep on its own. I see with the shell running, that performance monitor shows a CPU spike of 10% every 8 seconds; if I close the shell, this goes away. Related? I see others have this problem, but have never seen a solution, other than some custom screen saver (which didn't work for me).
Monday, March 06, 2006 7:00 AM by Einar

# re: Suggest a topic for a future blog post....

I would like to see an introduction and troubleshooting article on 'Shim database'-caching. I have read that this is caching of registry, and this technolgy is/becomes important in Vista and .net2.0.
I came across your blog when I was googling on 'Unable to open shim database version registry key'. One of the advises referred to as yours, was to give user (supposedly write/set value) permissions to HKLM\Software\Microsoft\.NETFramework\Policy\AppPatch\v2.0.50727.00000. Before I do a thing like that, I would like to know the risk involved.
My apologies for any mispellings or bad grammar. English is, by far, my native language.
Monday, March 06, 2006 10:09 AM by Peter Wilson

# re: Suggest a topic for a future blog post....

Hi Aaron - Thanks for a great blog..
There still seems to be a lot of problems with mce create video dvd & I'd like to see an informed, comprehensive summary of issues and solutions.
For info I have read pretty much everything I can find on the web about this isue but still can't get it to work on my machine. Every forum has threads running with nearly the same stuff being reinvented but clearly loads of disgruntled users out there.
Just as example - I am in uk region and record pal broadcasts - I find 894553 describes one of the problems I get, but I've no idea if this is rolled up into RU2 or the Jan Rollup so don't know if it applies.
Some people say there is a sequence that must be followed for sonicencoders, sonic windows components, r/up2, powerdvd etc as they are all dependent. Others say don't bother and install a third party product.
For me the issue is that all I want is a basic function in mce that works...and its supposed to be there anyway.
I'm convinced you would help a lot of people....
Thursday, March 16, 2006 12:56 PM by Darrel

# re: Suggest a topic for a future blog post....

I have had an issue for some time with Media Center 2005 UR2 and an AverMedia A180 tuner not working with the onboard SATA controller of my machine. It is some kind of hardware/driver issue because my ATI HDTV Wonder works fine. AverMedia has not gotten me any solutions, and newer drivers don't seem to fix anything. There is a post about it here http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=597238 If there is anything someone smarter than I could do as far as at least looking at or reproducing this problem it would be great. An explanation would at least be nice if there is no fix.
Sunday, March 19, 2006 8:58 AM by Optic

# re: Suggest a topic for a future blog post....

Perhaps talk about whether or not there will be "Softsled" in Vista.  Information is hard to come by.
Saturday, April 29, 2006 8:14 AM by Walter

# re: Suggest a topic for a future blog post....

Recently had to buy a new box (HP Pavilion a1410n) running Media Center. Installed my old HD to keep all my previous files. Old HD (d:/) was running xp Pro, which I still need because it contains IIS web server. Can you suggest a good, reliable tutorial on setting up dual boot between Media Center and xp Pro (running on different drives), or is there an easier way to get IIS functionality into Media Center? Thank you.
Monday, May 01, 2006 12:56 PM by astebner

# re: Suggest a topic for a future blog post....

Hi Walter - I haven't tried this myself, but because Media Center does not allow domain joining, I don't think you will be able to get IIS configured and running, so dual boot is probably your best bet here.  Setting up a dual-boot system with Media Center and some other version of Windows is not any different than setting up dual-boot for any other 2 OS types.  There are some really good instructions for configuring the Media Center OS at http://blog.retrosight.com/PermaLink,guid,f2553662-641c-43a5-a9f8-fdd3d69b1dee.aspx that I think will be useful to you here.
Friday, May 12, 2006 11:51 AM by Nigel Jones

# re: Suggest a topic for a future blog post....

Hi Aaron, thanks for great blog.

Question - is it possible to make Media Center (2005) a little more patient with the TV tuner card when resuming from standby to execute a scheduled recording.

I'm having a problem with a DVB tuner card which will not work properly after resuming, likely a driver bug. All MCE or indeed any other app shows is "no signal found"

I've been able to workaround this for interactive using a WMI in a script which waits for a Power Management event, and if it's of type 7 (resume) I stop ehrecvr, recycle the bad device with devcon & restart ehrecvr. Net result - TV works a few seconds after resuming.

But meantime MCE has got in, attempted to start recording, and failed. Grrrr. I'm experimenting with suspending the ehsched process during suspend, resuming it afterwards, but maybe there's a better way? (other than hassling my vendor to fix their drivers!!!)
Friday, May 19, 2006 10:17 AM by shahid

# re: Suggest a topic for a future blog post....

hello,
i am getting error when i run vs2005 beta 180 days...the error is:

the application data forlder for visual studio could not be created..
plz help me
Thursday, May 25, 2006 4:39 PM by astebner

# re: Suggest a topic for a future blog post....

Hi Shahid - This error means that the folder %APPDATA%\Microsoft\VisualStudio\8.0 could not be created.  There is probably some kind of permission problem for that folder.  Can you please try to create this folder manually using Windows Explorer and see if it works for you?
Thursday, June 08, 2006 6:23 AM by Arminator

# Getting an external Video Source into Windows XP MCE

Hello Aaron,

Let me thank you for writing such an insightful blog.

Since you cover my two main interests (Visual Studio and Media Center) I hope I can coax you into answering me the following:
I'm desperately trying to get Media Center TV to get a signal from a video source (eg. VCR or gaming console) to my TV card from the (S-)video-in connctor. Not the tuner.
The MCE Newsgroup tell me, it can't be done with the current MCE features, as MCE only controls the tuner.

Can an add-in provide MCE the ability to get a video from the video-in of one of my cards? My nVidia 6600 GT features a video-in as well as my Hauppauge WinTV Nova S+.

Is the Media Center SDK a good tool for this problem? Can it be used with the Express versions of Visual Studio?
Tuesday, June 13, 2006 11:12 PM by astebner

# re: Suggest a topic for a future blog post....

Hi Arminator - From what I know, getting video signals from non-TV sources is not supported in Media Center.  If you know enough about how to write code that could receive input from an alternative video source, you should be able to wrap that as a Media Center add-in.  The Media Center SDK can help you figure out how to integrate your application into Media Center.  The current version of Media Center (Update Rollup 2 for Media Center 2005) runs on the .NET Framework 1.1, so you will need to use Visual Studio .NET 2003 to create an add-in that will work correctly with Media Center.  The Express Editions can be used to create Media Center add-ins for Windows Vista.
Tuesday, June 27, 2006 2:38 PM by dhubbard

# re: Suggest a topic for a future blog post....

Aaron,

Hi I ran into an issue with winfx beta 2 and the add-ins for vs 2005. For some reason the add-ins try to convert my older sln files to 9.0 files. You cannot cancel the operation and still work with the old project. Now I am forced to remove vs 2005 and winfx beta 2. The uninstall for vs 2005 breaks because it cannot determine the unistall order. Can write about the manual uninstall. Also I have looked on the forums and cannot find a good place to post the issue. I left one message in the "Cider" forum to no avail. Is there a way to get the converter to stop converting projects. Otherwise I have to wait until november or january to work with winfx.

thanks
Friday, June 30, 2006 6:15 PM by Dan Hochee

# re: Suggest a topic for a future blog post....

Aaron,

Great blog. Lots of useful and insightful stuff. I've already benefitted from your tips on using msiinv and the Windows Installer Cleanup tool, neither of which I was aware.

However, the installer problem I just can't figure out is that MSI installs built using a setup-deployment project in Vis Studio 2005 cause corruption in Add/Remove programs. After running the install, either by right-clicking and choosing install from the IDE, or manually running the MSI (on either the development machine or another pc; the result is the same), Add/Remove Programs displays hundreds of lines of empty space and unusual video artifacts, and the program I just installed does not appear in the list. I can then use msiexec /x {product code} to uninstall the app and Add/Remove Programs returns to normal.

I tried creating a new test solution with a similar structure to my app (i.e., a VB Windows app with C# and VB libraries), but I couldn't duplicate the error. I deleted/recreated the Setup project several times with no effect. Oddly enough, I found that by changing the Product Name in the project's properties, however, it would sometimes install correctly, but so far it's only happened when the Product Name is short (<8 chars). At other times, switching to a shorter product name didn't fix it, but then changing the version & product code got it working!?! Those observations may just be coincidences, but I would really like to to have the full app name display in Add/Remove Programs, and, more importantly, I would like to have some clue as to what's causing this really strange behavior. Any ideas or helpful links? I've googled high and low to no avail.

Thanks in advance.

- Dan
Wednesday, July 05, 2006 11:17 AM by Rayaprolu

# ehshell.exe application error 0XC0000005

When trying to open media center it immediately gives ehshell.exe application error 0XC0000005 message and closes the media center windows. Tried reconfguring media center but no go. Request you to provide your valuable suggestions in this regard.
Thanks
Rayaprolu
Wednesday, July 05, 2006 11:35 AM by astebner

# re: Suggest a topic for a future blog post....

Hi Rayaprolu - The log file %windir%\ehome\ehshell.crash should provide more details about why this crash is happening.  Depending on what that says, there are different options for how to try to resolve this issue.

What kind of reconfiguration have you tried already?  Also, what version of Media Center are you running, and what is the latest Media Center hotfix that you installed?
Wednesday, July 05, 2006 4:51 PM by Rayaprolu

# ehshell.exe application error 0XC0000005....

Hi Astebner
The version of Media center is Media Center 2005. I am not sure about the latest hotfix donloaded on the system. I performed the following steps to resolve the issue but did not succeed.
REGEDIT > hkey_current_user > software > software > windows > currentversion > Media Center > settings
delete settings folder.
hkey_local_machine > software > microsoft > windows > currentversion > media center > settings
delete settings folder
deleted Ehshell.config file from Ehome folder
Thursday, July 06, 2006 12:55 AM by astebner

# re: Suggest a topic for a future blog post....

Hi Rayaprolu - Deleting those settings registry hives/folders generally do not help resolve Media Center crashes (at least in my previous experience).  The log files %windir%\ehome\ehshell.crash and %windir%\medctroc.log can be helpful to try to narrow this type of issue down.  You can send them to me at Aaron.Stebner (at) microsoft (dot) com and I will try to take a look and see if I can figure anything out.
Thursday, July 13, 2006 12:02 AM by astebner

# re: Suggest a topic for a future blog post....

Hi Dhubbard - You can use the steps at http://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/archive/2005/10/30/487096.aspx to perform a manual uninstall of the various pieces of Visual Studio 2005.  Hopefully this helps solve the "unable to determine valid ordering" issue you have been experiencing.
Saturday, July 29, 2006 7:53 PM by Mstuffed

# If I have a DLL, why won't Windows see it?

My Media Center keeps crashing when I try to
open albums and album cover jpgs.  The
error says I don't have ntdll.dll but I ran
a check on my system and I do....I really
do.  I have tried to Point the Media Center
to the other ntdl's but it is stubborn and
will not give up that easily.

My question is why can't a simple person, or
simpleton like myself, just go and get some
dll's and put them where they have gone MIA.
The error messages tell me where the MIA file is missing from, and it seems only logical that
you could just replace that dll.

Anyway, thanx for listening and maybe your
readers have a solution.

M

Wednesday, August 02, 2006 11:39 PM by astebner

# re: Suggest a topic for a future blog post....

Hi Mstuffed - I'm not sure how to explain why this is happening on your system.  Are you able to view your albums and album art in Windows Media Player?  Or does this error only happen in Windows Media Center?  You may want to try to repair Windows XP SP2 on your system and see if that helps here.  I'm sorry I'm not sure what else to suggest.
Tuesday, August 08, 2006 3:29 PM by kjrichmond

# Unexpected Error 2353 installing .net 2.0

I am trying to install .net 2.0 and i recieve the following error Unexpected error 2352 when installing .net2.0 i have ran your cleanup utility to remove all remaining items from .net 1.0 and 1.1 and i still recieve this error, i have googled it and have found nothing, but i have been tearing through your site and the .net cleanup utility is fantastic it has worked with other issues i have run  into if there is more information you would like me to add please let me know and i can answer any of the questions
Wednesday, August 09, 2006 11:17 PM by astebner

# re: Suggest a topic for a future blog post....

Hi KJRichmond - This error message sometimes can be caused by the file %windir%\system32\cabinet.dll being missing or corrupted.  You might want to try to repair the latest OS service pack on your system or copy it from %windir%\system32\dllcache to %windir%\system32 and then try to install the .NET Framework 2.0 again and see if that helps here.
Tuesday, August 29, 2006 7:46 PM by uridium88

# re: Suggest a topic for a future blog post....

I'd like to see the .NET 2.0 Deployment Guide updated with ASP.NET information such as selecting specific IIS web sites during installation; configuring COM+ app pools; configuring a virtual directory for .NET 2.0; and SQL Server 2005 database deployment.
Thursday, August 31, 2006 4:30 AM by Vikas_aditya

# re: Suggest a topic for a future blog post....

Hey can you help me in solving this case? I am having large .vhd files (bigger than 3 GB upto 9 GB) and I have to create installer using DVD.. How to do create multi CD/DVD installer using wix when individual files are greater than 8 GB ? How to use media tag ? if any example posted, would be helpful.. Thx
Saturday, September 09, 2006 2:51 PM by Kananga Boy

# re: My Vista Media Center Experience

I have just decided to take the plunge and start using Vista Media Center. I have a Nova-T-500 Digital Dual TV tuner card that I have tested before under XP2 using Hauppauge WinTV2000 without any issue whatsoever. My experience with Vista is somewhat disappointing so far. I am completely unable to get any TV signal and the EPG does not work. I have to say that I live in Espoo (Finland). Could you please help?
Sunday, September 10, 2006 7:13 PM by astebner

# re: Suggest a topic for a future blog post....

Hi Kananga Boy - You may want to try to update your TV tuner drivers and see if that helps resolve this issue.  I would suggest checking first on Windows Update, and if that doesn't help, check on the website for your tuner card manufacturer.  If these do not help, I suggest posting a question on the Windows Media Center for Windows Vista beta newsgroups and look for further advice there.
Thursday, September 21, 2006 4:52 AM by t_sch

# Installing VS Extensions for WFX and WWF on .Net 3.0 RC

Aaron,

while trying to upgrade a SharePoint 2007 development VM I 'm stuck with the problem that the VS extensions for WFX and for WWF need build 4203.2 aka .Net 3.0 RC and don't accept the published build 4307 also called .Net 3.0 RC.
Can you try to clarify and perhaps propose a workaround please?

Thanks,
Thomas
Wednesday, October 04, 2006 2:08 AM by Vikas_aditya

# re: Suggest a topic for a future blog post....

I have seen VS 2005 setup..and it look quite nice..I wanted to know what is the authoring tool used to develop this setup..I think it's Wise .. can WIX create same kind of installer?
Wednesday, October 04, 2006 11:28 PM by astebner

# re: Suggest a topic for a future blog post....

Hi Vikas_aditya - Visual Studio setup is a chainer written in C++ that installs multiple MSIs behind the scenes.  MSIs themselves can be built using WiX, but the chaining of multiple MSIs requires a separate tool.  There is not currently a chainer that is part of WiX, so you will have to find another technology such as the Visual Studio bootstrapper tool or write your own chainer executable.

Sunday, November 19, 2006 7:07 PM by mediabuff

# Having problems with Vista RTM and Xbox 360

Unable to connect. This network topology worked in MCE2005. Did an upgrade to Vista Ultimate. I am able to use the Media Manager of Xbox 360 to connect via (Windows Connect / WMP 11).

When I setup the extender, it fails, during "Setting Extender cofiguration settings" and XBOX 360 times out - saying unable to connect.

Also, how I clean up any old extender settings or remove old extenders ?

Please help

Monday, November 20, 2006 7:32 PM by astebner

# re: Suggest a topic for a future blog post....

Hi Mediabuff - I don't have a lot of expertise in troubleshooting Xbox 360 connectivity in Windows Vista Media Center, so I would suggest posting a question to the Microsoft.Public.Windows.MediaCenter newsgroup and hopefully someone there will be able to help out.

I believe you can remove old extenders by going to the System tab in the Xbox 360 dashboard, choosing Computers, then Windows Media Center and choosing Disconnect.

Monday, February 12, 2007 10:25 AM by stele

# Manifest creation for plugins

I create plugins for a living, some of which rely on external third-party DLLs. Installation has always been an issue, since the host application can't find my external DLLs unless they are in the host application's directory, or in system32.

I've been lead to believe (why, I'm not sure, since I haven't found ANY information on doing this) that I need to create an "assembly", by creating a "manifest" that points to my external DLLs. This should theoretically allow me to put my dependencies alongside my main plugin DLL without scattering my files every which way.

Is this possible? If so, can you write on this or other techniques on achieving something like this?

Monday, February 26, 2007 4:56 PM by planetf1

# Media Center tuning - buffering of I/O

Can you perhaps elaborate on some of the registry settings used by Vista media center.

I experienced stuttering in vista media center with a Terratec Cinergy 2400i DVB-T tuner (with >90% signal strength) until I tweaked some of the DVR settings as follows

My latest settings are

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Service\Video\Tuners\DVR]

"AsyncIoBufferSizeBytes"=dword:00080000

"AsyncIoWriterBufferPoolCount"=dword:00000028

"BufferPoolTotalMillis"=dword:00000bb8

"BufferPoolSize"=dword:00000200

"AsyncIoReaderBufferPoolCount"=dword:0000005a

"BufferPoolMaxPerStream"=dword:00000300

This was somewhat of an educated guess - I'm theorising that the I/O between the card and MCE/disk needs some more capacity esp when system is busy (3gb ram, Pentium D 820 dual core, 2 disk striped for MCE in a Dell PC) .

A vendor supplied TV recording prog has no stutter whatsoever.

I'm still thinking I need to retweak these slightly, but am I working along the right lines? I think there's quite a number of people out there with this issue.

Note: since I have 3Gb of ram I'm not bothered about using significant (250Mb?) ram for MCE.

Wednesday, May 09, 2007 9:39 AM by ilavaa

# restore ACL permissions using subinacl tool

Hi,

can you tell me how to restore ACL permissions which i backed up already to a file using subinacl /outputlog="outputfile.log". I read it in a manual /play file option is used to restore the ACL permissions. but when i try this option it resore nothing. i.e., there is no users and groups in ACL list and we have to create it manually. im wondering is there any option used along with /playfile?. or is there any way to restore these acl permissions from the output file?

Wednesday, May 09, 2007 12:03 PM by astebner

# re: Suggest a topic for a future blog post....

Hi Ilavaa - I'm sorry, but I'm not really familiar with that functionality in SubInAcl so I don't know the answer to this question.  There is a file named subinacl.htm that is installed next to subinacl.exe when you install that tool, and it contains examples and descriptions of the command line switches, so it might help to take a look at that.

Thursday, May 31, 2007 9:11 PM by sanchst

# How to keep MC remote from controlling TV and Computer

I'm using my xBox360 as a Media Center extender. Unfortunately, the Media Center remote is controlling both the TV and the PC at the same time. This has the undesired effect of running random commands on my computer when all I want to do is watch TV. Is there a way to disable the remote from controlling the PC?

Thursday, May 31, 2007 10:17 PM by astebner

# re: Suggest a topic for a future blog post....

Hi Sanchst - Yes, this is a setting you can control in your Xbox Dashboard.  I forget exactly where it is, but I believe it is on the system tab.  There is a remote control menu that looks like the picture in the blog post at http://mediacenter.mattgoyer.com/archives/2006/06/06/1130 and you can toggle your remote to only work with the Xbox 360 and not with Media Center on your PC.

Friday, June 15, 2007 3:19 AM by jono1

# re: Suggest a topic for a future blog post....

After installing Office 2003 about 2 weeks after installing a fresh copy of Vista Home Premium, Media Center suddenly stopped recognising my TV Tuner which was working beautifully up until that point.

Plus, around the same time I started noticing weird graphical glitches in the text in Vista games like Minesweeper and Solitaire.

I did a System Restore back to the point just before installing Office and the Media Center error message changed from "No TV Tuner detected" to "a required file is missing or corrupt" (or something to that effect). This suggests to me that Office overwrote a system file with its own (older) version, causing the TV tuner to stop working, but when I got rid of  Office, the file wasn't replaced with the original.

I also tried running the Vista Startup Repair utility to see if it could repair any system files that had been corrupted but it didn't detect any problems.

I have the latest drivers for both my TV Tuner and my graphics card installed.

Any clues?

Friday, June 15, 2007 10:25 AM by astebner

# re: Suggest a topic for a future blog post....

Hi Jono1 - Windows Vista includes a feature called Windows Resource Protection that will prevent applications from being able to replace system files, so I don't think that Office would have corrupted anything on your system to cause this type of error in Media Center.

I'd suggest trying the suggestions listed by me and by other folks in the comments of the post at http://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/archive/2007/03/16/how-to-repair-media-center-files-and-registry-entries-on-windows-vista.aspx to see if they help at all in this scenario.

Wednesday, June 20, 2007 10:12 PM by jamieb22

# The VC runtime nightmare

Hi there

You write about how developers can fix the nightmares surrounding the Visual C++ runtime DLL's. The VC runtime DLL's are relied upon by millions of applications and yet there are versions with serious bugs in them.

See: http://www.google.co.za/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=%22This+application+has+requested+the+Runtime+to+terminate+it+in+an+unusual+way.%22&btnG=Search&meta=

There are thousands of entries relating to this bug.

Microsoft does not seem to want to propose a resolution to this problem. We are told to contact Microsoft Professional Services.

Wednesday, June 27, 2007 12:09 PM by nwourms

# re: Suggest a topic for a future blog post....

I would like to see something on these topics:

1) How to create an AIP for the latest WinSDK. Specifically, what on earth are the command line options for the WinSDK's setup.exe (it kinda looks like a vs2005 installer, but not quite).

2) How to convert the web based .NET 3.5 Beta1 Framework Runtime installer to an offline installer (unofficially). Specifically, I want to tell the setup.exe to just create a local cache of the various setup packages it may use and then be able to modify the ini/sdb in that cache so that I could burn the whole thing to a CD.

3) CABSFX, CABSFX, CABSFX! One of the biggest mysteries is this CABSFX installer format you use for more and more packages these days. It isn't just limited to hotfixes anymore, either. MS released info on IExpress, but you guys are so tight-lipped about CABSFX. Isn't about time that Microsoft spilled the beans on this utility and made it public, like IExpress? At the very least, how the heck do you force the location of the temporary files it extracts?!? Just because a drive is available does not mean I want it used for this purpose.

Monday, September 03, 2007 2:35 PM by Frankiee

# Office Live in der Schweiz

Wer weiss wann Office Live in der Schweiz eingeführt wird? Als KMU wäre das natürlich extrem interessant zu wissen....

Tuesday, December 04, 2007 6:50 PM by kingces95

# re: Suggest a topic for a future blog post....

I'd like to create an .msi installer using Visual Studio 9 that will install the 3.5 .net framework w\o asking the user to go to the web and then install my application. So the user downloads my msi and from then on out all they have to do is click next and accept licensing agreements. I don't mind if the installer is a bootstrapper and downloads stuff from the web -- just so long as the user doesn't have to intercede to start the downloads.

And what would really be great is a codeplex project to do this. I can't help but think that this is a very common and vanilla scenario (and hope!) of third party developers. It would be a very interesting exercise for MS to undertake to see how easy\difficult it is for 3ed parties to create such an .msi.

Thanks!

Chris

Anonymous comments are disabled
 
Page view tracker