Uninstall incomplete WMC install in order to install 8.9.1

[prsa01]

I feel like I went down this path before but search isn't finding it.

I had a failed install of 8.8.5 (I think) some time ago. I am not having any luck finding an uninstall, but wmc is definitely at least partially installed. I can launch it and can walk thru the setup process at least to some degree.

My preference would be to completely uninstall and start over with the latest version (8.9.1).

I've searched my drives for "uninstall*.*. I've looked at "control panel" software. I'm not finding a "media center" or similar folder in programs that might have an uninstall option. The media center shortcut just points to ehome which doesn't seem to have any uninstall related items.

Is there a way to determine what version I have (partially) installed?
Can someone share the 8.8.5 uninstall (I think there was a .bat and a .cmd)?

Is there something that would completely uninstall what I have so I can start over no matter what partial install it is?

Thanks much!

[Kevin Chalet]

Is there a way to determine what version I have (partially) installed?

Not trivially, but if it's the 8.9.1 installer, you have a "Windows Media Center" folder in Program Files (with that branch, the ehome in C:\Windows is just a symlink).

Can someone share the 8.8.5 uninstall (I think there was a .bat and a .cmd)?

https://mega.nz/file/GKQx3aTB#1PY2AgBQh ... Sc5b2G1XhE

Note: 8.9.1 isn't necessarily better than the other options, it's just a different, MSI-based option: viewtopic.php?t=14395.
Personally, I decided to stay on 8.8.5 (I agree the versioning is confusing... all these packages were authored by different people, so we all tried to find a convention but it didn't work well ).

[prsa01]

Thanks much, Kevin for both the files and the info.

[technodevotee]

For future reference:

Gary's MSI installer is the way to go for most people and that has an uninstall in the usual place for Windows programs.
It also has some helpful features - especially for satellite tuners.

if you have any other install, you would need to use an appropriate script based installer package to uninstall and you might have trouble uninstalling if you don't use the same one that was used to install it.

Unfortunately, the file version doesn't help with determining which installer was used but the dates of the files in \windows\ehome does.

if they are mostly dated 2013 then it is probably 8.10.x
If they are mostly dated 2014 then it was probably V 8.8.4 or earlier
If they are virtually all dated 2015 then it was probably V13
If they are all dated 2020 then it was probably V8.8.5

I don't know what dates the files in 8.9.x are but as Kevin said, it is quite easy to tell that version because \windows\ehome is a link to somewhere else.

[Kevin Chalet]

Thanks much, Kevin for both the files and the info.

My pleasure! Let us know how it goes

Gary's MSI installer is the way to go for most people and that has an uninstall in the usual place for Windows programs.
It also has some helpful features - especially for satellite tuners.

It's definitely the simplest option. That said, there are two points to keep in mind when using that branch:
- It's not RDP-friendly: you can't set up TV or watch TV via RDP, which can be annoying when you need to configure TV remotely (it also applies to Hyper-V VMs: you can't set up TV using an enhanced session).
- It doesn't remove the WMC database when uninstalling WMC. In a way, it's not a bad thing, but if you somehow ended up with a broken WMC setup, the MSI uninstaller itself won't help you at all fix that.

[technodevotee]

- It's not RDP-friendly: you can't set up TV or watch TV via RDP, which can be annoying when you need to configure TV remotely (it also applies to Hyper-V VMs: you can't set up TV using an enhanced session).

There seems to be two camps with respect to running WMC in an RDP session: Some like the ability to use WMC full screen but with limited functionality and some like to be able to run it with full functionality but not full screen.

I still run V13 because I don't watch TV in an RDP session but I do like to be able to use it full screen and if I need to do stuff remotely that can't be done in RDP, I use teamviewer (although other solutions are available).

- It doesn't remove the WMC database when uninstalling WMC. In a way, it's not a bad thing, but if you somehow ended up with a broken WMC setup, the MSI uninstaller itself won't help you at all fix that.

Presumably, Gary expected that people would be using EPG123 to configure/reconfigure WMC once it was installed? EPG123 certainly makes life a lot easier nowadays.

[Kevin Chalet]

There seems to be two camps with respect to running WMC in an RDP session: Some like the ability to use WMC full screen but with limited functionality and some like to be able to run it with full functionality but not full screen.

I still run V13 because I don't watch TV in an RDP session but I do like to be able to use it full screen and if I need to do stuff remotely that can't be done in RDP, I use teamviewer (although other solutions are available).

I addressed that in my new mini-mods project by making that configurable dynamically via the registry. See viewtopic.php?p=152818#p152818 for more information

[technodevotee]

Yes I saw that.

Thanks for everything you do for the community.

[Kevin Chalet]

Thanks for everything you do for the community.

Thanks! My pleasure, as always

[Yamashta]

I need this info today