WMC stopped working after Repair Reinstall of Win11.

Discussion of getting WMC to work on Windows 11 (unsupported)
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Mugsy

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WMC stopped working after Repair Reinstall of Win11.

#1

Post by Mugsy » Thu Apr 11, 2024 12:28 am

I had to Reinstall Windows 11 to get Windows Update to work again. But as a result, WMC stopped working (natch).

I tried to reinstall but it tells me it's already installed.

Is there a simple fix, or must I uninstall/reinstall again? (I have v8.8.5. Is there a newer version?)

TIA

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Mugsy

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#2

Post by Mugsy » Thu Apr 11, 2024 3:42 pm

Follow-up. With no replies, I ended up just uninstalling WMC 8.8.5, rebooting, and installing WMC 8,(nine),1.

WMC installed, but now EPG123 doesn't detect it:

Image

I tried reinstalling EPG123 (v1.8.2.11) but it didn't help.

Suggestions?

TIA

PS: Why can't I use the number nine in my posts???

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Mugsy

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#3

Post by Mugsy » Thu Apr 11, 2024 8:52 pm

Follow-up 2...

I ended up going back to WMC 8.8.5.

Doing so, "EPG123" (v1.8.2.11) re-detected WMC again (it failed to detect WMC 8.(nine).1.)

I did get an error ("Unable to read MXF file") to rebuild client DB, but I was able to rebuilt it from an earlier archive from EPG's history archive.

WMC 8.(nine).1 also incorrectly identified my tuner(s), saying my Hauppauge QuadHD card had "two Digital Antenna" tuners and "two Cable ClearQAM" tuners (it's actually 3 & 1.)

Everything is working now as long as I stick with 8.8.5.

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garyan2

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#4

Post by garyan2 » Thu Apr 11, 2024 11:53 pm

It may have failed to "detect" WMC due to an incomplete uninstall of 8.8.5... specifically from the GAC. The client will look at mcepg.dll, mcstore.dll, and BDATunePIA.dll to try and determine which version of WMC is installed. If it does not find those files in the GAC, or can't determine what version they are, it will generate that message. The log file should have had some entries to that effect. The client only needs 1 of those files to determine what version WMC is installed and will proceed with the execution.

I have sometimes run the uninstall for 8.8.5, reboot, run the uninstall for 8.8.5 again, reboot, and then install 8.9.1. I haven't gone through the process in quite a while but 8.9.1 is very sensitive to any residual files leftover from previous WMC installs from the 8.8.x family.

Note the main benefit, in my opinion, to using 8.9.1 is that if you have a major breaking update to Win10/11, or a reinstall of Win10/11, then WMC will automatically be reinstalled and you don't lose your database. You will however need to perform WMC TV Setup again due to the tuners getting new IDs; otherwise, everything will look fine but you won't be able to tune anything.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

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