10 Essential Free Vista Media Center Addons & Tweaks

Tony Williams | Apr 15, 2008 | View Comments

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I’ve had a lot of fun customizing Windows Vista Media Center over the last couple of days. Here are the best 10 free tweaks and addons I’ve found for VMC that will allow you to get so much more out of your Windows Media Center.

  • My Movies 2: A free addon that automatically adds new movies that you add to your PC to your Windows Media Center library. It also downloads information about your movies from the My Movies WebService, including genre, actor, movie reviews and other information. More info

    • My Movies For Windows Media Center

  • Vista Codec Packs: This codec pack is the only one you will need to install on your Vista PC. Not only does it support nearly every format known to man, there are no messy configuration screens. If you are a 32 bit user you just need to install the 32 bit version. If you are a 64 bit OS user then you need to install the 32 bit version AND the 64 bit version.

    • Vista codec packs

  • Remove annoying ‘Sample Music/Sample Videos/Sample Photos folders’: The annoying sample folders that Vista Media Center adds as a default, just refuse to die no matter how many times you say to ’stop watching’. Unless, you follow these instructions. More info
  • Add Amazing Visualizations: Media Center visualizations suck – here’s one that doesn’t. More info

  • Show DVD Library: In VMC the DVD Gallery is not enabled by default like in Windows XP Media Center. A quick registry fix will take care of this problem. More info

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About the Author: Want to get more out of your PC, the internet or your mp3 player? Onetipaday.com is here to provide clear simple tips and guides to help you achieve just that. Each tip will be easy to implement and will take no more than 5 minutes to read and implement. What will you learn today?

  • Kyle
    I too could not get TwistedPixel to work. I looked at the troubleshooting page for TwistedPixel and it indicates you should turn off the Data Execution Prevention for the program using TwistedPixel but when I tried to Vista says you cannot Turn off Data Execution Prevention for WMC.
  • Gaz
    TwistedPixel is cool but it does not work in Vista Media Centre (but it does work in WMP11 in Vista)
  • Lewis
    hi, just wanted to say thanks for all you have done, fantastic page full of fantastic tips here, well done!!
  • mark
    I'd love to know how to make the artist view under music show like how it does in media player.  in media center I can only get the list view of artist names but in media player the artists show as a stack of cds with one of the pictures from one of them on top, much nicer.  if you can figure out that one I WOULD LOVE to know!
  • whats the xml or a way to direct Vista Media Center to Burn Dvds from nero8 and playback dvds to default using nero, without having to close the MC, so when i go to burn dvd in MC it uses nero8 to burn? the whole point is to not put in any dvd into my media center unless im ripping it, but to play from hardrive, so i want to use nero to play the dvd files (TS) that i just ripped from dvd disc to hardrive. I just want to be able to insert dvd, rip to folder, and play that ripped folder and or burn that ripped folder all within Vista Media Center.
  • Deanna May
    Annoying web links:  Have you figured out how to remove the links to web media; tv and radio stations?
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