Extras Library Gone!

Sammy2

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Extras Library Gone!

#1

Post by Sammy2 » Thu Apr 26, 2018 3:02 pm

Last night I had a few issues with guide data probably related to my changing services with Spectrum but after I got WMC up and running again, it lost connections to my extenders which I am restoring but the Extras Library is gone from the Menu Strip in WMC. How to get it back? Am I up for a re-install of Win7x64 now? Might be something I need to do anyhow to clear out some other persistent errors but what about Windows Updates and keeping bad updates at bay, like those that kill concurrent sessions, force GWX and other things? I've had updates off for quite some time now. At any rate, let's start with how to get back the Extras Library in the Menu Strip?
No Extras.JPG
TIA.

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#2

Post by jachin99 » Thu Apr 26, 2018 4:49 pm

I bet the markup that shows extras got screwed up somewhere. Look under programdata\ehome\packages and see which folders are there. I think you can restore cabinet files with an mcupdate command.

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#3

Post by Sammy2 » Thu Apr 26, 2018 11:07 pm

jachin99 wrote:I bet the markup that shows extras got screwed up somewhere. Look under programdata\ehome\packages and see which folders are there. I think you can restore cabinet files with an mcupdate command.
What am I looking for?

Run mcupdate from the run bar or do I look for it in Program Files and run it from there? Does it need elevated privileges?

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#4

Post by jachin99 » Fri Apr 27, 2018 2:14 am

I'll have to look around for the right switches to extract packages. This is more of a hunch, and I can't say which exact folder your extras menu "Lives" in. Here is snapshot of what my folder structure looks like under programdata\ehome. Those cabinet files are what I believe you extract using mcupdate. You can look up the command, and I haven't used it much myself but I know others have used it to reset wmc, fix guide problems, etc. I have to get more specifics but you can at least check to see if your files are still there.
Capture.PNG

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#5

Post by jachin99 » Fri Apr 27, 2018 2:35 am

Actually, your start menu is a file called ehres.dll. I can share mine with you if you would like. I was thinking your extras GALLERY was missing. go to c:\windows\ehome, and look for that file. Check and see when it was last modified. If you have file history on, maybe you can restore it to a previous version. I think there are some registry hacks that can be used to hide or unhide it as well. That shouldn't be too hard to fix I would think. I bet ehres.dll is corrupted, or got changed for some reason.

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#6

Post by Sammy2 » Fri Apr 27, 2018 2:42 pm

jachin99 wrote:Actually, your start menu is a file called ehres.dll. I can share mine with you if you would like. I was thinking your extras GALLERY was missing. go to c:\windows\ehome, and look for that file. Check and see when it was last modified. If you have file history on, maybe you can restore it to a previous version. I think there are some registry hacks that can be used to hide or unhide it as well. That shouldn't be too hard to fix I would think. I bet ehres.dll is corrupted, or got changed for some reason.
It is dated 07/13/2009. I don't think it has ever been modified.
ehres.JPG

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#7

Post by jachin99 » Fri Apr 27, 2018 3:28 pm

Do you have media center studio or media center theme installed and have you made any recent changes to rtvhd?

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#8

Post by Sammy2 » Fri Apr 27, 2018 9:02 pm

jachin99 wrote:Do you have media center studio or media center theme installed and have you made any recent changes to rtvhd?
Not and I AFAIK I haven't changed rtvhd as I don't even know what that is..

I have RecordedTV HD installed but really don't use it much and haven't made any changes there. My wife prefers the standard RecordedTV so that's what's used, mostly.

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#9

Post by jachin99 » Fri Apr 27, 2018 9:17 pm

I don't know if its something with your picture but I dont see any icons for live TV or search in your TV strip. I was refering to recorded tvhd because I use it to change my start menu. If you really want to avoid restoring your machine, you can reregister everything in your extras library onto your startmenu using registermceapp.exe. Its already on your PC in your ehome folder. All you would have to do is figure out how to build the xml. See here: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/librar ... 89728.aspx. You would get the info you need from the registration files for the programs in your extras menu, or from the registry. The registry key that tells you what is registered in WMC is something like HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Extensibility\Entry Points I can't remember if that is for everything, or just for extras though.

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#10

Post by Sammy2 » Wed May 02, 2018 11:40 am

jachin99 wrote:I don't know if its something with your picture but I dont see any icons for live TV or search in your TV strip. I was refering to recorded tvhd because I use it to change my start menu. If you really want to avoid restoring your machine, you can reregister everything in your extras library onto your startmenu using registermceapp.exe. Its already on your PC in your ehome folder. All you would have to do is figure out how to build the xml. See here: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/librar ... 89728.aspx. You would get the info you need from the registration files for the programs in your extras menu, or from the registry. The registry key that tells you what is registered in WMC is something like HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Extensibility\Entry Points I can't remember if that is for everything, or just for extras though.
Been a busy few days but I have all these in entry points so I don't have any idea what is what and what settings to make.
Entry Points.JPG

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#11

Post by Sammy2 » Wed May 02, 2018 11:53 am

BTW, I do have all the TV items. I was in process of re-doing epg123 Guide and had no guide at the time of that screen grab.
Strips.JPG

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#12

Post by jachin99 » Wed May 02, 2018 12:28 pm

I'll post a pic for you that shows the entrypoint info for media browser as an example. Notice how the registration.xml file matches most of what is in the registry entry. In particular, the addin element tells WMC which assembly to load. When you make your own start menu strip, yours will look similar to that. What you need to do is read the info for each subkey and find the ones that sound close to your extras programs. Some programs have more than one start entry, and finding the correct one is a matter of trial and error. If the program has a background addin, then it will have more than one.
Capture.PNG

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#13

Post by jachin99 » Wed May 02, 2018 7:17 pm

If you still need help, I can try to type up a template. Make sure when you are creating new guids for each ID (App ID in the registration.xml file which gets loaded in the registry key as well. I use an online guidgen, and each guid has to be unique. If your extras are still registered somewhere you can't use their old guids. They probably are.

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#14

Post by Sammy2 » Wed May 02, 2018 9:01 pm

jachin99 wrote:If you still need help, I can try to type up a template. Make sure when you are creating new guids for each ID (App ID in the registration.xml file which gets loaded in the registry key as well. I use an online guidgen, and each guid has to be unique. If your extras are still registered somewhere you can't use their old guids. They probably are.
I didn't know I'd have to script registry entries to fix this. I don't know how to script it so maybe a template would be of help for me.

Any assistance you can offer up would be awesome!

Side note, The Extras Library does show itself when using Ceton Echo Extenders though which is odd.

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#15

Post by jachin99 » Wed May 02, 2018 11:00 pm

Give me a day or so to write good instructions if you dont mind

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#16

Post by Sammy2 » Wed May 02, 2018 11:06 pm

jachin99 wrote:Give me a day or so to write good instructions if you dont mind
Do I mind? Not at all and thank you very much. Not sure why it went away but it did and I just need to bring it back..

Being as it shows on extenders and not on WMC proper is there someplace else to look too?

Thanks.

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Crash2009

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#17

Post by Crash2009 » Thu May 03, 2018 12:43 am


Sammy2

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#18

Post by Sammy2 » Thu May 03, 2018 12:04 pm

Crash2009 wrote:Any objections to a factory reset?

http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... 61#p123561
Now that's doable..

Right now I skinnied down to Spectrum Basic and have transitioned to YoutubeTV and Hulu Commercial Free but the Basic Cable still costs $40 a month after taxes and license (broadcast surcharge?) so as soon as I get an antenna and HDHR Quatro I'll add my name to the long list of cancellations.

.. at that time I'll reset WMC but until then, it really doesn't matter too much as the extras library show on extenders.

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#19

Post by jachin99 » Thu May 03, 2018 1:55 pm

Here is a breakdown of how to create a custom start menu strip in WMC. To start things off, I'll break down what each xml element means, and how to fill those values in, and later, I'll explain how to register your strip from the command line.

///APPLICATION SECTION///

Code: Select all

<application id="{b0f10fea-8975-4767-80b7-0461593795ac}"
    Title="OnDemand"
    Description="Instant movies and TV"
    StartMenuStripTitle="Streaming and On Demand"
    StartMenuStripCategory="ondemand">

APPLICATION ID: The application id must have its own unique GUID. You can get GUIDs from an online guidgen like this one https://www.guidgen.com/
ALL OTHERS: The StartMenuStripTitle will appear as the name of your custom strip while the Title, Description, and StartMenuStripCategory only appear in the registry but you will see further below why they need values.

///ENTRYPOINTS///

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<entrypoint id="{e85579db-8ff1-40f0-9b86-b5b38db9cb71}"
    addin="tubeCore.tubeCoreAddIn, tubeCore, Version=2.14.4992.3757, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=feb7c2d919fe93cf"
    title="Play On TV On Demand"
    Description="TV and Movies On Demand"
    ImageUrl="playon.png">
  <category 
    category="ondemand"
    order="1">
  </category>
ENTRYPOINT ID: Equivalent to the application id above, this is a unique value for your tile while the application id is a unique value for the strip as a whole. Once again, use onlineguidgen to get unique GUIDs for each.

ADDIN: To find the value for addin, look in either the registry, or somewhere within the program’s folder itself. The value for addin should be contained in the program’s original registration xml document. For media browser for instance it is located in a folder called media browser under program files. You should see something very similar to what I have where it gives the name, culture, version number, and public key token. In the original xml registration, and in your custom registration this value points to the .dll that is your actual addin. Some addins have more than one like RecordedTVHD for instance, which registers various pages for RecordedTV, Movies, combreak viewer, etc. You will need to find the assembly that is whatever part of the addin’s experience you want to land on when you select your start menu tile.

TITLE: This will appear as the name of your tile

DESCRIPTION: Appears in the registry

IMAGE URL: This is the path to the image for your tile, relative to the path of your registration file. I usually create a folder directly on my C drive with the registration file, and all of my images to keep things simple in my registration file, and while working with the command line. Hang on to these files because if you ever want to remove your strip or change it, then you will need the registration file. If the you lose it, you will have to delete your entrypoints from the registry directly.

CATEGORY: You created this above and it has to match the category found at the top of your registration file.

ORDER: This tells WMC which order to put your tiles in.

///REGISTERING YOUR NEW STRIP///
Now to register the strip you have just created, open a command prompt as admin, and type:

Code: Select all

cd c:\windows\ehome
This will change your working directory to a folder that has registermceapp.exe, the program you will use to insert your new start menu strip.
To register your strip, type:

Code: Select all

Registermceapp.exe /allusers c:\startmenuregistration\ondemand.xml
Registermceapp.exe is responsible for registering the strip, the /allusers flag isn’t necessary but this will register the strip for every user on the machine if so desired, and c:\startmenuregistration\ondemand.xml is the location of your registration file. If you create a folder named startmenuregistration, and you name your registration xml file ondemand.xml then this exact command will work for you provided you place your registration file in that exact directory.
I have messed this up quite a bit so I had to learn this command, which removes the strip.

Code: Select all

Registermceapp.exe /u /allusers  c:\startmenuregistration\ondemand.xml
The /u might have to come after /allusers I can’t really remember. Once unregistered, you can edit your xml file and reregister it. MAKE SURE YOU UNREGISTER IT BEFORE CHANGING IT. Otherwise your unregistering a now invalid xml document, and you will end up in the registry editing your start menu strip out manually.

That Is it in my own words. For Microsoft documentation about all of the above, go to: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/librar ... 89042.aspx

Finally, here is a picture of what one of my custom strips look like, and a link to a sample xml document you can use as a template.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Hb3Ms ... cyCnyPkyQ1
Streaming.JPG

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Crash2009

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#20

Post by Crash2009 » Sat May 05, 2018 7:10 am

Very nice Jachin.

Sammy's extra's strip has disappeared from the main user account. What is strange is the extra's strip can still be seen in the extender MCX user account. His fix might be as simple as using a couple of those commands in your last post near the bottom. Re-register and all users are what he needs I think.

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