What is Windows Media Center?

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by Windows

Overview

Windows Media Center is published by Windows. You can find out more about Windows Media Center at its official website or at Windows's website.


How do I clean Windows Media Center?

Windows Media Center may store excess, temporary data on your computer that can take up valuable space. It may also store private data such as passwords or browsing history in the registry or on the file system. The easiest way to erase this data is by downloading AppCleaner, it is 100% free and about 1MB in size. A portable version is also available.

Clean Windows Media Center
with AppCleaner

If you want to clean Windows Media Center manually, you can follow the steps outlined below. There are six locations in the file system where Windows Media Center stores data that can be cleaned. Additionally, Windows Media Center stores private data in one registry key.

Registry

To clean the registry from data stored by Windows Media Center, you can use the Microsoft Registry Editor (regedit.exe) which is installed by default on all Windows operating systems. First of all, open regedit.exe by carrying out these steps:

  • Hit the Windows key , usually located in the lower left of your keyboard between the Ctrl and Alt keys.
  • Windows XP/Vista/7: Click Run...
  • Type regedit.exe
  • Hit Enter

Now use regedit.exe to delete the registry key:

    • Expand HKEY_CURRENT_USER from the root of the tree in the left pane.
    • Expand Software.
    • Expand Microsoft.
    • Expand Windows.
    • Expand CurrentVersion.
    • Expand Media Center.
    • Expand MRU.
    • Right-click SettingsMRU.
    • Choose Delete from the context menu.
    • Click Yes.

Files

To clean your file system from files stored by Windows Media Center and to gain free disk space, examine the following file system locations. First of all, open a command prompt window:

  • Hit the Windows key , usually located in the lower left of your keyboard between the Ctrl and Alt keys.
  • Windows XP/Vista/7: Click Run...
  • Type cmd
  • Hit Enter

Now list all the files stored by Windows Media Center that can be cleaned:

  1. Type dir %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Microsoft\eHome\logs\*
    • Windows XP: Type dir %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\Microsoft\eHome\logs\*
  2. Type dir %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\eHome\playlistcache.db
    • Windows XP: Type dir %USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\eHome\playlistcache.db
  3. Type dir /s %PUBLIC%\Recorded TV\TempRec\TempSBE\*
  4. Type dir %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Ehome\Image.db
    • Windows XP: Type dir %USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Ehome\Image.db
  5. Type dir %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Ehome\Video.db
    • Windows XP: Type dir %USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Ehome\Video.db
  6. Type dir %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Ehome\musicThumbs.db
    • Windows XP: Type dir %USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Ehome\musicThumbs.db
  7. Type dir %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Microsoft\eHome\thmb\TVThumb.db
    • Windows XP: Type dir %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\Microsoft\eHome\thmb\TVThumb.db
  8. Type dir %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore\ProgramData\Microsoft\eHome\thmb\TVThumb.db
    • Windows XP: Type dir %USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data\VirtualStore\ProgramData\Microsoft\eHome\thmb\TVThumb.db

Once you have identified the files stored by Windows Media Center that you want to clean, delete them using the del command or Windows Explorer.

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