Registry Based Vista MCE Start Menu Customization

Below are the registry keys. You can also download the registry file (Save As) with the same information to make it easier. Things to note:

1. With the exception of HideTV, change the value of OnStartMenu to False to remove the ENTIRE strip.


2. Change the value of HideTV to 1 to remove TV related tiles.


3. When removing the Online Services tile you lose the ability to access your program library. For me this isn't an issue as I've written all my own plug-ins that I place on custom strips.


4. I do not know what functions two of the values hide. I'm assuming they are for Discovery Packages (i.e. MCESpotlight\Sports Strip) that are either not available in my region or reserved for OEM. More than likely the later as there are two tiles reserved for OEM Discovery Packages.


5. The values below are per user. You can change them to be Local Machine if you want everyone to have the same start menu. I use it at the Per User level so I can customize the "kid's extender" to have different settings than my extender. To configure your extender accounts you can import the settings into their registry branch by loading their registry file or what I do is use command prompt through an extender to import it.


6. You must restart Media Center for the changes to apply.


7. At least one default strip must be visible. Setting all OnStartMenu values to False will crash Media Center (Microsoft, care to fix this?).


8. I've collected all this information myself, afaik except for LiveTV it is not published anywhere else.



Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Start Menu\Applications\Internal]

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Start Menu\Applications\Internal\{2f72fb52-e1c4-46a5-be32-54205db0ffc4}]
"OnStartMenu"="True"
@="Music"

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Start Menu\Applications\Internal\{47ecf759-4ec8-4b10-ae36-d262fee6fa04}]
"OnStartMenu"="True"
@="Sports"

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Start Menu\Applications\Internal\{49f9b475-6d2c-4f27-9bbd-120b942d89d8}]
"OnStartMenu"="True"
@="Pictures + Videos"

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Start Menu\Applications\Internal\{a8add452-1d1a-4775-acf2-565796306789}]
"OnStartMenu"="True"
@="Online Media"

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Start Menu\Applications\Internal\{cde6651e-56e3-48a0-bdca-9a3151f0e67c}]
"OnStartMenu"="True"
@="Tasks"

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Start Menu\Applications\Internal\{d30ea221-143f-47b7-9123-983d6813a759}]
"OnStartMenu"="True"
@="Unknown #1"

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Start Menu\Applications\Internal\{dde82191-ea23-4606-9d63-b92c809c31bb}]
"OnStartMenu"="True"
@="TV + Movies"

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Start Menu\Applications\Internal\{f646f46d-cb98-4a32-bded-23c64a586b66}]
"OnStartMenu"="True"
@="Unknown #2"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Start Menu]
"HideTV"=dword:00000000