Create a menu Tile to cleanly switch between programs?

[gobo]

Hi
I use WMC with another program, good old Meedio believe it or not . To switch between the two I currently use a button on my remote that sends a command to girder that runs an autohotkey script to activate meedio (which is running behind WMC ). I do the same to get back to WMC when meedio is in front.

I would like to add a menu option in WMC which is more intuitive than some odd button on a remote. I've created a tile in WMC to run the meedio exe but that isn't as elegant. I've also tried to created a tile to run a girder command from within WMC but that changes WMC into a window or minimizes it. That seems to happen anytime an exe is run regardless. Does anyone know if there is any way via a menu tile to switch between two already running programs without WMC "noticing"? Something similar to a simple Alt+tab maybe?

Thanks for any help!
Tom

[jachin99]

I use eventghost to do things like this extensively. I have a tile in my startmenu that turns on my Xbox one and changes inputs on my avr via eventghost. There are a lot of different ways to accomplish what your looking for. The first question I would ask is what do you want to trigger your change? With VMC contoller and EG you could use a media state change ( pause, play, etc.) or almost any other event in WMC. You can also use key pesses, start menu tiles, or new windows tasks like meedio. I have a thread here in the third party programs forums about vmc controller and eventghost and there is a thread on the eventghost forums about eventghost wmc integration. Once you know for sure how you want to trigger your task change it is just a matter of finding an elegant way to switch wind focus.

[gobo]

Hi

Thanks for the help! Will check out Event Ghost. Quick question, is calling a function in Event Ghost anything like with Girder. With Girder you can call up an event using the girder.exe command line program with parameters. The problem I find with running any EXE from within WMC menus is that WMC goes out of full screen mode. I tried as a test just running notepad from a menu tile within WMC and even that caused WMC to leave full screen. Both with real and fake full screen modes. Frustrating. I hope Eventghost works. Definitely worth a shot! :)

[jachin99]

http://www.eventghost.net/forum/viewtop ... =2&t=10233. This is a topic I have over at their forums about WMC. Eventghost has some command line switches that you can use to call macros. I assume functions in girder are a similar concept. EG also has a python scripting option so AHK probably won't be needed. Calling a bat file from EG will likely result in a console window but give me a few days to investigate another way. Off the top of my head you could send wmc it's minimize window keystrokes or close it outright via a start menu tiles or remote button. You can also close or minimize wmc with VMC controller OR if you want to show off a little, you can have eventghost send a message via the wmc dialogue menu that meedio has
started and build a few buttons where you can choose between closing or minimizing wmc. All of these choices involve you installing various programs on your PC. One question though, why do you need meedio?

[gobo]

Thanks. I've been wanting to learn Event Ghost for a while so now is a good time to try! Always used girder. I haven't changed from Meedio because I just have it set up exactly the way I want. I like fast simple menus with the bare minimum online stuff so its quick. I have a lot of other stuff installed in the background to make it handle more modern stuff and fill in the holes or where it's slow but it all works seamlessly. The playmee plugin is great for all of that. I was originally using BeyondTV for DVRing and Meedio for everything else. BTV and Meedio switched back and forth so easily. Now we are using WMC, and while great, it seems to like deciding on what screen mode to use making that simple back and forth difficult. Here's some Meedio shots from the HTPC BTW and thanks again!