Upgrading from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10, 20H2

Discussion of getting WMC to work on Windows 10 (unsupported)
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sdschramm

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Upgrading from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10, 20H2

#1

Post by sdschramm » Fri Feb 19, 2021 5:07 am

Back in 2015 I built a HTPC and started with Windows 10. I had nothing but issues getting Windows Media Center to work. I was using a CableCARD + HD HomeRun Prime at the time, so perhaps that was part of the issue. Constant forced updates would break Windows Media Center, the guide would stop updating, etc. I eventually got tried of it and downgraded to Windows 8.1 with Windows Media Center and that has been rock solid ever since. But now its 2021, I've dropped the CableCARD, and only use an antenna with a Hauppaguge WinTV HVR 2255 card and I'm itching to upgrade to Windows 10 and figured why not give it a try again. I did some research to see what all was compatible or not and couldn't find much info about my 3rd party software but I come back to these forums and see the project for WMC on Windows 10 is still alive! So I back everything up, upgrade to the latest and greatest Windows 10, 20H2 and see what happens. To my surprise, everything is still working great!

I didn't bother trying to uninstall WMC from my 8.1 install, I left everything as is. I did run a tool called "mcBackup" from TheDigitalLifestyle which saved my scheduled recordings. I also did a full system backup through Windows. I then downloaded the Media Creation Tool from Microsoft and create a USB flash drive. I wasn't able to run the upgrade directly from the boot drive as it complained my OS was not compatible due to a language pack or something (it didn't like the WMC version of Windows 8.1). I then booted from the flash drive but still no joy, same error. I ended up booting back into Windows 8.1 and running the upgrade from off the flash drive and that worked!

After Windows 10 was installed, obviously WMC was gone. I went over to this thread: https://thegreenbutton.tv/forums/viewto ... 97&t=13188 and downloaded v8.8.5 and followed the directions. Everything worked fine! WMC was working again but I did have to run though the lengthy process of searching for channels again and disabling channels out of the guide I didn't care about. (foreign language, religious, etc). After that I restored my backup from mcBackup and my scheduled recordings were back. My media libraries, recordings, etc all remained the same. My Hauppaguge WinTV HVR 2255 card still worked, and the "eHome" remote sensor (using with a Harmoney 650) still worked fine as well. I did have to re-install EPG123 from GaRyan2 in order to get the guide listings to work. It seemed to have got corrupted at some point in the process. After that my guide came back and is updating just fine!

Then there are a few little tweaks I like such as MCE Reset Toolbox. This allows me to customize the home screen of WMC. (remove sections I don't care about). This still worked fine. MCEBuddy allows me to process recordings and remove ads with Comskip, still works fine! And even an app that hasn't been updated in forever: LEDSdriver by Herman van Eijk. This app allows me to turn on a red LED wired into to my RS-232 port (have an extension wire to its in the front of my PC case) whenever WMC is recording something. Still works perfectly fine!

So all in all, I'm very pleased with this upgrade. I just wanted to take a moment and thank everyone that makes these things possible, and also list my experience in case anyone else like me is in the same situation and not sure if these software still work or not.

Thanks again!

GarbeDown

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#2

Post by GarbeDown » Wed Feb 24, 2021 7:58 pm

Sdschramm: Similar to you, I had used WMC (Windows Media Center) for many years. Then I bought a new computer with Windows 10 Pro 64-bit (now updated to version 20H2) and moved my Hauppauge "WinTV-quadHD" tuner card into it. WMC would not run. Gave up trying to get WMC to work back in 2019 or so; switched to using the Hauppauge WinTV v10 application.

Today, I searched the internet to see if a new WMC install was available and found your post from 19 Feb. After reading it and following in your footsteps, WMC v8.8.5 now works for me - yeah!!

I am still testing, and will soon search for a functioning program guide so I do not need to configure OTA recordings using channel & time.

Thanks for your post, which inspired me to try again! :thumbup:

sdschramm

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#3

Post by sdschramm » Thu Feb 25, 2021 3:24 am

I use EPG123 (https://epg123.garyan2.net/) and Schedules Direct (https://www.schedulesdirect.org). It costs $25 a year but it's worth it. It's been rock solid for me now on my second year.

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