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Vista / Windows 7 Media Center Skin for Xp MCE 2005 (+ Tablet PC 2005 Converter)


AMIRZ

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Updated (Sorry for the bump, important update): Thanks to my friend Juggz from WinMatrix for this plug in and quick tutorial through PM there :D :

Big Green Does Not Work (i.e Launch MC ehshell.exe) - MCE Remote feature

1st off I just want to say "Thank you very, very much" for making this AMIRZ, I am using your WMC Installer for Xp Pro, Home, Tablet PC on my laptop w/ XP Pro SP3. I spent quite a while web spelunking some days ago & found your awesome installer. I have been using it since then because the day I found this I acquired a HP USB MCE Remote. I found most everything works as should but I did happen by a couple of bugs (not to sure if anyone else is experiencing these).

Big Green Does Not Work (i.e Launch MC ehshell.exe)

The first thing I noticed was that ol' big green was not functioning. I ended up doing some more spelunking & found this. Before I jumped into regedit as the article states I checked msconfig to see if the entry to launch ehtray at boot already existed, it did & was listed in Task Manager when I checked. I am able to use the Video, Music, Picture buttons to launch MC directly to the corresponding media type. But for some reason it was not picking up the keystroke of big green. One really quick solution I found is using Eventghost, which can be found on sf.net. It has a built in plugin that provides access to MCE remote button remapping.

Here's a quick tutorial:

Download & install EventGhost. Once installed & running, select File->New. Now right-click Autostart & select Add Plugin. Select Microsoft MCE Remote from the list & click ok. right-click Autostart again & this time select Add Macro. In the new window click on the system node & expand it, select Start Application & click ok. In File path input the location of ehshell (i.e C:\WINDOWS\EHome\ehshell.exe) & in the Working directory field input the directory ehshell resides in (i.e C:\WINDOWS\EHome\) & click ok.

Pick up your MCE Remote & press big green. Under description in the log it should have an entry of the keystroke from the remote (i.e MceRemote.Start). Click the entry in the description column & hold/drag it to the new macro. Press big green again & presto! :)

OR...

If you want to skip all the above you can simply create a new xml file in the directory EventGhost is installed in & add the following to it:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?><EventGhost Name="Configuration Tree" Expanded="True" Version="908" Guid="{26532C0B-62AF-421C-A308-C67FC79DE93F}" Time="1236707826.59"><Autostart Name="Autostart" Expanded="True"><Plugin File="MceRemote" Identifier="MceRemote">gAIpLg==</Plugin></Autostart><Macro Name="Start Program: ehshell.exe" Expanded="True"><Event Name="MceRemote.Start"></Event><Action>System.Execute(u'C:\\WINDOWS\\EHome\\ehshell.exe', u'', 0, False, 2, u'C:\\WINDOWS\\EHome\\')</Action></Macro></EventGhost>

Remember to change the two "C:\\WINDOWS\\EHome" references to whatever drive & directory you have ehshell installed on.

I was planing on trying to make an app that uses keyhooking to do this... But this was definitely a lot easier & less time consuming... :rolleyes:

The only other thing I noticed is that it did not pick up all the media on my computer correctly. With Videos it picks out what are in the shared folder only, unless I manually add access to a user account or the root of another drive that any reside & it would only go so many directories deep when selecting a path. Until I scanned all my music with WMP again, MC would only pick up what was already in the WMP Library, I tried this trick with video also (i.e synching it in the WMP library) but it did not work. It picks out all the pictures located in the my pictures folder of a user account no problem. Still looking into this one, only if I could figure out a way to manually edit the preset scanned media folder (i.e change from shared to a specific users media directory or directory on a drive)... :blink:

I am figuring it might have to do with policy restrictions, maybe the files, directories, or drives need to be set as shared but I would love to know if there is an alternate way for security reasons.

Well I hope this info will help future users & once again thank you AMIRZ for making the most awesome installer! :D

- Download EventGhost: http://www.eventghost.org/wiki/EventGhost:About#Download

Thanks alot for the update Juggz, i hope it can be useful for many people especially MCE users here and out there who still can't use the MCE remote feature (all MCE versions) etc. Cheers! :D

Edited by AMIRZ
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Not working...

Pick up your MCE Remote & press big green. Under description in the log it should have an entry of the keystroke from the remote (i.e MceRemote.Start). Click the entry in the description column & hold/drag it to the new macro. Press big green again & presto! :)

MceRemote.Start there is no such line.

I have Hp dv6500(6617en) http://i8.ebayimg.com/03/i/000/ag/5d/5794_1.JPG

Edited by Max-kun
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Not working...

Pick up your MCE Remote & press big green. Under description in the log it should have an entry of the keystroke from the remote (i.e MceRemote.Start). Click the entry in the description column & hold/drag it to the new macro. Press big green again & presto! :)

MceRemote.Start there is no such line.

I have Hp dv6500(6617en) http://i8.ebayimg.com/03/i/000/ag/5d/5794_1.JPG

:) Yey and maybe it only depends on the version or works only on standard Media Center remote (actually it's just based on his own experience, :D sorry i can't say anymore hehe... ). I hope at least all these informations by us might be useful/helpful for someone who may need them sometime... :) thnks for the report and info Max-kun

Edited by AMIRZ
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Edit: To mod and admin special thanks alot for pinning this thread. I hope the thread can be useful as another way for people especially Xp users who may want to get or make MCE like Vista or 7. Again thank you so much all guys for your attention and support anyway :D Cya

=====================================================

Here's the previous list of Vista apps and features on Xp on my thread on Wincert here:

http://www.wincert.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=4594

(also hope to be pinned hehe but it's still OK enough to include it here also)

Edited by AMIRZ
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Usually there's no problem so far. Let the setup process still run till finished itself by the time usually depending on the system/memory (limited) etc or possibly memory leak :confused02: ? Or try to restart, then disable some unnecessary process and/or antivirus etc temporarily to free up memory before running the installer again. Hopefully it will work for you mate. :D Cya...

=====================================================================

ANOTHER GUIDE: ONE GOOD EXAMPLE OF CUSTOMIZING/ENHANCING XP TO MAKE IT LOOK AND BEHAVE LIKE VISTA

(ALSO WINDOWS 7)

(In A Simplest/Minimalistic Way Without Being 100% Vista

Edited by AMIRZ
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  • 1 month later...

are u from indonesia?im from malaysia...can i know y wmc not run in my xp pro?it just black screen..my windows xp pro sp3..net framework 3.5,wmp 11 n ie 8...saya harap awak dapat bantu saya secepat mungkin kerna aku memang sudah lama mencari software ini,,,trimas..

Edited by harumankasturi
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are u from indonesia?im from malaysia...can i know y wmc not run in my xp pro?it just black screen..my windows xp pro sp3..net framework 3.5,wmp 11 n ie 8...saya harap awak dapat bantu saya secepat mungkin kerna aku memang sudah lama mencari software ini,,,trimas..

Yes i'm from Indonesia and welcome 2 Wincert Harumankasturi saudaraku serumpun Melayu :thumbsup_anim: Wa'alaikum salam nice 2 meet u here

Well, semoga saya bisa membantu awak. Kalau saya boleh bertanya, jenis apa yang awak pakai: WMC Installer dan/atau Xp to Xp MCE 2005 convertion pack? Juga spec komputernya (hardwares), dan bagian mana yang berwarna hitam/black screen? Maksud saya apakah keseluruhan jendela (window/User Interface) dari application nya hitam atau hanya sewaktu memainkan file2 tertentu (e.g dvr-ms, mov etc)? Jika keseluruhannya berwarna hitam, maka ini kemungkinan diakibatkan oleh VGA card/driver yang tidak mendukung MCE application, jadi awak dapat mengupgrade vga/drivernya (recommended), atau cukup memakai hasil patch dari ehshell.exe sesuai di guide sebelumnya (InsyaAllah dapat saya patch kan nanti setelah tahu jenisnya). Tapi kalo hanya sewaktu memainkan file2 tertentu maka mungkin awak dapat install codec nya saja (e.g KLite Codec Pack) atau mengupgrade beberapa dll tertentu di system32 folder.

OK saya tunggu replynya... :)

Edit: Maaf saya bru baca PM nya mas, uda dibalas pliz check PM box

Edited by AMIRZ
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Yes i'm from Indonesia and welcome 2 Wincert Harumankasturi saudaraku serumpun Melayu :thumbsup_anim: Wa'alaikum salam nice 2 meet u here

Well, semoga saya bisa membantu awak. Kalau saya boleh bertanya, jenis apa yang awak pakai: WMC Installer dan/atau Xp to Xp MCE 2005 convertion pack? Juga spec komputernya (hardwares), dan bagian mana yang berwarna hitam/black screen? Maksud saya apakah keseluruhan jendela (window/User Interface) dari application nya hitam atau hanya sewaktu memainkan file2 tertentu (e.g dvr-ms, mov etc)? Jika keseluruhannya berwarna hitam, maka ini kemungkinan diakibatkan oleh VGA card/driver yang tidak mendukung MCE application, jadi awak dapat mengupgrade vga/drivernya (recommended), atau cukup memakai hasil patch dari ehshell.exe sesuai di guide sebelumnya (InsyaAllah dapat saya patch kan nanti setelah tahu jenisnya). Tapi kalo hanya sewaktu memainkan file2 tertentu maka mungkin awak dapat install codec nya saja (e.g KLite Codec Pack) atau mengupgrade beberapa dll tertentu di system32 folder.

OK saya tunggu replynya... :)

Edit: Maaf saya bru baca PM nya mas, uda dibalas pliz check PM box

Asslamualaikum mas,,,terkejut kerna diforum ini ada jugak melayu..hehehe..hebat lagi tue,,saya pakai yg jenis WMC installer,keseluruhan jendela computer saya berwarna hitam..dimana untuk saya mengupgradekan vga/driver itu mas?bleh bagi tahu caranya..harap mas dapat bantu secepat yg mgkn... :)

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mas dimana kamu?dapat tolong ngak?

Waduh maaf sabar mas, saya kan juga manusia biasa, kan kita juga perlu tidur dan juga harus kerja/kesibukan lain hehe :) kan tidak mungkin saya didepan komputer atau internet terus ya (yeah i love computer but otherwise actually i'm not a "geek" anyway). :P

OK mas maaf kayanya saya mungkin kurang spesifik menjawabnya diatas: sebagai persyaratan aplikasi multimedia dengan performance tinggi dari Microsoft maka Windows Media Center membutuhkan spesifikasi yang lebih tinggi dari Xp biasa: sekitar Minimum 512 MB RAM, 1,8/2 GHz Processor Pentium 4, dan DirectX9 VGA (GPU) card 128/256 Mb or higher. Jika VGA cardnya mas sudah support DX9, maka mas tinggal upgrade drivernya saja dengan yang paling baru. Misalnya VGA cardnya mas NVidia, maka tentukan tipenya dulu (E.g NVidia Geforce 8800), maka mas bisa download drivernya gratis di websitenya NVidia: http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us . Hal yang sama juga dengan merk dan tipe lain misalnya ATI etc tinggal di-Google aja mas. Ini step yang paling recommended mas, karena average komputer zaman sekarang kan diasumsikan sudah sesuai/lebih tinggi dari spec diatas dan sudah support Vista/MCE/Windows 7 dan juga game/multimedia applications dengan performance tinggi. VGA cardnya onboard atau terpisah mas?

Tapi kalo misalnya VGA cardnya mas kurang memenuhi/belum support DX9, atau karena alasan lainnya, maka InsyaAllah mas lebih mudah bisa pakai hasil "patched" (aka hacked) ehshell.exe (main WMC executable file) sesuai yang sudah saya jelaskan di guidenya di thread ini mas. Tinggal download dan copy file ehshell.exe untuk overwrite originalnya di %windir%\ehome aka C:\Windows\ehome. Lalu coba buka lagi MCE nya, semoga tidak hitam lagi. InsyaAllah semoga berhasil Amin. :D

Download patched ehshell.exe: http://www.hr-host.com/wincert/Amirz/Patch...d_to_Xp_Pro.zip

Download dan copy itu ke C:\Windows\ehome untuk mengoverwrite originalnya. Oh jangan lupa buat backup aslinya (optional but recommended)

Untuk pembaca lain yang mungkin butuh sama hal tapi tidak mengerti Bahasa Melayu hehehe:

Download and copy it to C:\Windows\ehome to overwrite the original one. Don't forget to create the backup of it (optional but recommended).

==============================================

Btw ini cara mempatch ehshell.exe nya mas (dikutip dari post pertama saya di thread ini): Oh sorry for my bad English hehehe :P OK mas cya


[b]10) Optional: "Optimizing MCE" in Old/Low End Machine (Preventing any error of it on Low End Machine).[/b]

Sometimes/maybe if you have Xp MCE 2005 installed on low end machine with onboard/low-end VGA or without good drivers installed, then Windows Media Center often gives any error message, black screen, etc when it's loading. It's caused Xp MCE 2005 natively requires higher specs hardwares than normal Xp and acceleration (as Xp MCE 2005 requirements) such as supported DX9 VGA card, good monitor resolution etc, some items that might not be available on old/low end machine (the same case with Vista Movie Maker on old hardware). However seems that we can fix that by this little hacking that i've found:
Oh one more this can be for any version/build of Windows Media Center:
- Decompile ehshell.exe by using the above way (ildasm.exe)
- After that, open ehshell.il file by using any text file editor/Notepad (again i recommend [url="http://www.ultraedit.com/"]UltraEdit[/url], it's awesome app for editing text and scripting)

Go to line 567908 (usually will be different address on another version/build) or only search for the second #StartupError.Title" string (without quotes-This is a load string function for error message) and find some routines like below:
[code]// Code size 161 (0xa1)
.maxstack 9
.locals (string V_0,
string V_1,
class ServiceBus.UIFramework.Dialog V_2,
class [EhCM]eHome.UI.Library.DialogMenuItem[] V_3)
IL_0000: call class ServiceBus.UIFramework.PageBasedUCPService ServiceBus.UIFramework.PageBasedUCPService::get_DefaultUCP()
IL_0005: pop
IL_0006: call class ServiceBus.UIFramework.StringTable ServiceBus.UIFramework.UCPService::get_StringTable()
IL_000b: ldstr "#StartupError.Title"
IL_0010: ldnull
IL_0011: callvirt instance string ServiceBus.UIFramework.StringTable::ProcessLocalisableString(string,
class ServiceBus.UIFramework.XmlControl)[/code]

OK, look at this string above:

[code]IL_0000: call class ServiceBus.UIFramework.PageBasedUCPService ServiceBus.UIFramework.PageBasedUCPService::get_DefaultUCP()[/code]

Change it all to:

[code]IL_0000: ret[/code]

So the entire lines will become:

[code] // Code size 161 (0xa1)
.maxstack 9
.locals (string V_0,
string V_1,
class ServiceBus.UIFramework.Dialog V_2,
class [EhCM]eHome.UI.Library.DialogMenuItem[] V_3)
IL_0000: ret
IL_0005: pop
IL_0006: call class ServiceBus.UIFramework.StringTable ServiceBus.UIFramework.UCPService::get_StringTable()
IL_000b: ldstr "#StartupError.Title"
IL_0010: ldnull
IL_0011: callvirt instance string ServiceBus.UIFramework.StringTable::ProcessLocalisableString(string,
class ServiceBus.UIFramework.XmlControl)[/code]

That's it. Save and compile it as usual.Next time while you're opening Media Center on old machine, you won't get any error anymore, and it will load quicker. (But you don't have to do this on a capable/new machine, it will be useless) .

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maaf mas..saya sudah tidak sabar nie..hehehe,maaf menganggu mas,,saya punya VGA card ATI..saya download patch dia mas nanti lepas saya download saya akan beri dia punya feedback ok....satu lagi VGA card sya onboard..

Edited by harumankasturi
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assalamualaikum mas,,maaf menganggu..saya sudah cuba patch dia mas tapi masih jugak black screen..hmmm..mngapa ya mas??

Wa'alaikum salam mas. Masih hitam juga mas? :blink: Biasanya berhasil kok di komputer saya yang VGA aslinya disabled dan juga banyak users lainnya. Sudah didownload dan diextract file yang dari saya upload mas? Maaf mas hanya memastikan tapi yang dicopy bukan hasil downloadnya kan mas tapi hanya file ehshell.exe yang ada didalamnya (diextract dengan Winzip/Winrar atau dengan another utility). Nah yang originalnya ehshell.exe overwrite mas dengan ehshell.exe yang baru. Selain itu coba ubah2 resolusi monitornya di display properties (click kanan desktop -> Display properties) maaf mas cuma memastikan. :)

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^ Wa'alaikum salam mas Harumankasturi. Oh drivernya ATI sudah diupdatekan ya mas? OK coba lagi download copy lagi file ehshell.exe yang ini ke C:\Windows\ehome untuk meng overwritenya:

http://www.hr-host.com/wincert/Amirz/ehshell.EXE

Sesudah dicopy filenya lalu coba dijalankan lagi Windows Media Centernya, mudah2 an ya mas

Kalo masih black screen, banyak juga kemungkinan penyebabnya mas (karena setiap system berbeda meskipun untuk majority users tidak ada masalah sejauh ini yang saya tahu...), mungkin memorinya kurang untuk mengangkat MCEnya (e.g terlalu banyak application running) atau MCE crash dengan program/service lainnya etc. Atau mungkin juga karena skin Vistanya mungkin ya mas (hacked load png dan flash resolusi tinggi). Mungkin kalau pakai skin standardnya dari MS Xp MCE 2005 tidak black screen tapi yah memang taste "Vista"nya tidak ada. Mohon maaf nanti mungkin saya research lagi deh mas, mudah2 an bisa ketemu solusinya asap... :tired:

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Wa'alaikum salam mas, maaf ya mas untuk hal ini, sya bingung sungguh diluar dugaan saya karena baru kali ini dapat karena selama ini majority users lainnya good, average tidak ada masalah seserius ini :blink: apalagi seperti mas bilang semua persyaratan sudah dipenuhi (software prerequisites, driver etc) tapi masih belum bisa juga :confused02: . Tapi akan tetap sya usahakan sebisa saya ya mas, insyaAllah kalo begitu dapat solusinya akan segera saya kabari mas secepatnya ya. Alternatif lainnya mas bisa convert OS Xp Pro mas ke Xp MCE 2005 langsung (OSnya) untuk dapat hasil paling optimalnya sesuai yang ada di thread, tapi yah memang tidak selalu 100% menjamin kalau hasilnya lebih baik karena setiap system berbeda...doakan saya dan juga kita ya mas makasih Assalamu'alaikum...

Edit: Mas bilang di pos pertama, mas hanya punya .Net Framework 3.5 terinstall di Xp Pro SP3 mas ya mas?

Coba download dan install juga .Net Framework 1.1 Service Pack 1:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details...;displaylang=en

sesudah itu restart komputernya dan coba jalankan WMC nya lagi

Kalo belum bisa, uninstall WMC dan reinstall WMC lagi untuk meregistrasi ulang beberapa file dan driver. Dan coba jalankan kembali Windows Media Center

Edited by AMIRZ
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assalamualaikum..ngak perlu mintak maaf mas..bkn salah mas pun..hehehe,saya senaraikan information comp saya ya mas,mgkn mas bleh tahu masalah nya

Machine name: TURIONX2

Operating System: Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 3 (2600.xpsp_sp3_gdr.090206-1234)

Language: English (Regional Setting: English)

System Manufacturer: Hewlett-Packard

System Model: Compaq Presario CQ40 Notebook PC

BIOS: Default System BIOS

Processor: AMD Turion X2 Dual-Core Mobile RM-70, MMX, 3DNow (2 CPUs), ~2.0GHz

Memory: 766MB RAM

Page File: 1020MB used, 851MB available

Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS

DirectX Version: DirectX 10.0 (4.10.0000.18000)

DX Setup Parameters: Not found

DxDiag Version: 5.03.2600.5512 32bit Unicode

saya punya ATI (VGA card):

---------------

Card name: ATI Radeon HD 3200 Graphics

Manufacturer: ATI Technologies Inc.

Chip type: ATI Radeon HD 3200 Graphics (0x9612)

DAC type: Internal DAC(400MHz)

Display Memory: 384.0 MB

Current Mode: 1280 x 800 (32 bit) (60Hz)

Monitor: Default Monitor

Monitor Max Res:

Driver Name: ati2dvag.dll

Driver Version: 6.14.0010.6947 (English)

DDI Version: 9 (or higher)

Driver Attributes: Final Retail

Driver Date/Size: 4/29/2009 10:17:04, 335872 bytes

WHQL Logo'd: n/a

WHQL Date Stamp: n/a

VDD: n/a

Mini VDD: ati2mtag.sys

Mini VDD Date: 4/29/2009 11:30:44, 3643904 bytes

ini pula net framework yg ada dalam komputer saya;

net framework 1.1

net framework 1.1 Hotfix(KB928366) <------------ saya pun ngak tahu apa maksud ini mas

net framework 2.0 sp2

net framework 3.0 sp2

net framework 3.5 sp1

adakah saya perlu instal net framework 1.1 service pack 1 mas?

kalau ada apa2 yg bleh saya bantu..cakap saja ya mas..assalamualaikum mas AMiRZ

Edited by harumankasturi
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guys guys, this is an English language forum, please keep it that way. I won't delete this posts, but if you'll need an international part of the forum, I'll do it because of our faithful member Amirz..

Regards

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guys guys, this is an English language forum, please keep it that way. I won't delete this posts, but if you'll need an international part of the forum, I'll do it because of our faithful member Amirz..

Regards

:blush: Oops i'm very sorry N1K, yeah i "forgot" this is an English Forum lol, sorry i promise i'll start posting in English after this, considering that would maybe more useful for other people (included Malaysians/Indonesians) i.e who may also have the same problem. Again sorry it's my own fault thanks for your understanding before. Also thank you so much for your kind offer N1K really appreciated, yeah it would be great, or maybe in the future :D

@Wa'alaikum salam Mas Harumankasturi, first since this is actually an English forum, i think we should keep talking to each other in English only mas (which should be no problem since i have seen most Malaysians who can speak English very well in both real life and net, much better than myself hehe), but anyway if you'd still prefer to use Malay (or Indonesian language) either, then both of us can please do it through PM, yeah same with me too hehe. And sorry if my English is neither good nor fluent hehe lol :P

Your system actually meets minimum requirement for Windows MCE (even maybe for Vista), so it should'nt be any problem with the app at all. And yes you should have already had .Net Framework 1.1 SP1 installed to as i clearly wrote it on the first post yet (one of some main required prerequisites). Since MCE 2005 with update rollup 2 is basically a .Net app, it needs some .net components installed of course as usual, which ones are mainly Gacutil.exe, updated MScoree.dll, Regasm etc. Yes like .Net 3.0, .Net Framework 3.5 would also install multiple .net frameworks (1.0, 1.1, 2.0...) as well, according to MS statement that it's no problem to have multiple .net frameworks installed on your system, however some files such as Gacutil.exe (Global Assembly Cache tool) is only presented in SP1 of .Net Framework 1.1, so you would still have to install it separately for Windows Media Center bcoz of that. Anyway good luck

Edit:

PS: check your PM box later also, please thanks Mas Harumankasturi cya n keep in touch... . :)

Edited by AMIRZ
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