Opening Modern UI apps within Media Center

[rantanamo]

Forgive me if this question has already been asked/answered. I tried to thoroughly search, but couldn't seem to find anything.

Ok, I have 2 Rokus in the home and find myself using them more and more. Though until some of these services start archiving more shows and I can get more live sports, I'm still adamant about using WMC and its smooth, quick interface that I can virtually add anything to. I do have some services set up with Kylo, and just use my touchpad keyboard, I like the ease of the Roku menus. I know, I can just change inputs, but I still love the convenience of the same interface. This has me seriously looking at an Xbox One and just setting up WMC throught it for tv functions and using the apps on there. What I've found though is as many apps, as Roku and Xbox One have, there are still more apps somewhere else, and that is on the web itself. What is a close second? Windows 8 Modern UI itself. And generally these apps are beautifully designed and actually pretty consistent and more smooth than their Roku counterpart. So this begs the question: Is there a way to launch these apps from WMC and even add icons for them within WMC in the same way some of us do websites with Kylo? I think this would solve the "streaming problem" that WMC created by not fleshing out Internet TV.

I will hang up and listen, but if there's a thread, could someone point me in that direction. Sorry, would just like to have it all in one interface, which no one seems to be interested in that has the money to do it.

[3rob3]

I had the same thought recently and tried myself with no luck. The closest I got was using Stardock's ModernMix (cool software btw) which allows you to run Modern apps on the desktop. It works great, even allowing you to create desktop shortcuts. I asked about it here:
http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... f=9&t=7047

Relaunch doesn't seem to like switches, so I tried creating cmd and batch files with the switches included and pointing Relaunch to them. It would close Media Center, I would see that ModernMix was running, but the app wouldn't launch. I gave up trying after a few days.

What really sucks is that the Modern (Metro) environment is so close to being an HTPC dream come true, the apps are beautiful and work great, but unfortunately (and stupidly IMHO) don't support remote control input. I was willing to live with this limitation and use a touchpad, but I couldn't get that to integrate with Media Center either.

[maniac]

Not sure I understand the problem but I think everything you want to do is possible. The Start Screen is navigable with a Microsoft remote and you can program a button to return to Start. Also it is possible to add entry points to the WMC interface by modifying the ehres.dll file.

[curtis]

But many if not most metro apps are not designed for remote navigation, including Netflix. So even if you are able to open them, you likely won't be able to effectively drive them.

[3rob3]

Not sure I understand the problem but I think everything you want to do is possible. The Start Screen is navigable with a Microsoft remote and you can program a button to return to Start. Also it is possible to add entry points to the WMC interface by modifying the ehres.dll file.

And that is the problem, what is the path to "Modern" Netflix you set the entry point to? As far as I can tell there isn't one, unless you use ModernMix.

But many if not most metro apps are not designed for remote navigation, including Netflix. So even if you are able to open them, you likely won't be able to effectively drive them.

Discussed above. I realize it is not ideal, and if you are using a mouse you may as well just launch the app using a mouse, it would just make things easier to launch/quit if you could use Relaunch. What is sad is that the media controls mostly do work in Modern apps (play, pause, etc), it is just the navigation controls that don't (up, down, left, right, ok).

I am really happy with my Media Center setup as is using built in Netflix, Amazon add-in, and Youtube using relaunch. I don't really need to get this to work it would just be another option and I wanted to see if it could be done.

[n0mdep]

It can be done.

You need to launch "C:\Windows\explorer.exe shell:AppsFolder\UMID.

If you're using MCE Reset Toolbox, the path is "C:\Windows\explorer.exe" and the attributes are "shell:AppsFolder\UMID"

Replace UMID with the relevant UMID. You can generate a list of UMIDs using this Powershell script (you only need to run this once to find the UMIDs -- put this into a text file and rename the file "script.ps1"):

Code: Select all

Start-Transcript $env:SystemDrive\Users\$env:username\Desktop\Log.txt 
$installedapps = get-AppxPackage
foreach ($app in $installedapps)
{
    foreach ($id in (Get-AppxPackageManifest $app).package.applications.application.id)
    {
        $app.packagefamilyname + "!" + $id
    }
}  
Write-Host "Finished : Press any key to exit... View Log.txt for AppUserModelId's" 
$x = $host.UI.RawUI.ReadKey("NoEcho,IncludeKeyDown") 
Stop-Transcript 

For example, "C:\Windows\explorer.exe shell:AppsFolder\Microsoft.SkypeApp_kzf8qxf38zg5c!App" will launch Skype.

More info (and more methods for launching -- which may or may not working depending on the app in question) here: http://forums.mydigitallife.info/thread ... plications

[cncb]

More info (and more methods for launching -- which may or may not working depending on the app in question) here: http://forums.mydigitallife.info/thread ... plications

I can't load that link but I know that to launch netflix it is as simple as typing "netfilx://" in the run box.

[3rob3]

n0mdep, awesome information.....thanks!!

[milli260876]

I found the best way was to map the green button to start...
There's a thread somewhere how to do that. I'll have a look if u can't find it and you want to know.

[barnabas1969]

I found the best way was to map the green button to start...
There's a thread somewhere how to do that. I'll have a look if u can't find it and you want to know.

Here's a post to get you started on your journey. This thread should help you figure out how to do it. I helped another user do exactly what milli260876 is talking about (re-mapping the green button), but I can't find that thread.

[barnabas1969]

Basically, the hex group in ReportMappingTable, which starts with 0d needs to be setup to send whatever key combination causes the Metro menu to appear.

[n0mdep]

I found the best way was to map the green button to start...
There's a thread somewhere how to do that. I'll have a look if u can't find it and you want to know.

Does that stop/pause playback in WMC? I think the green button is also the easiest and quickest way to exit a Win 8 app and return to WMC.

[3rob3]

n0mdep, have you actually set Media Center up to launch a Modern app? Did you use Relaunch?

[milli260876]

I found the best way was to map the green button to start...
There's a thread somewhere how to do that. I'll have a look if u can't find it and you want to know.

Does that stop/pause playback in WMC? I think the green button is also the easiest and quickest way to exit a Win 8 app and return to WMC.

no you have to exit wmc.

[barnabas1969]

I found the best way was to map the green button to start...
There's a thread somewhere how to do that. I'll have a look if u can't find it and you want to know.

Does that stop/pause playback in WMC? I think the green button is also the easiest and quickest way to exit a Win 8 app and return to WMC.

If you want to get fancy, you could re-map one of the remote's keys to a keyboard keypress that doesn't do anything in either program, and then use EventGhost (EG) to do different things depending on which program is in the foreground. For example, you could map the Green Button on the remote to something like CTRL+ALT+A (or whatever), and then setup an EG macro that triggers on CTRL+ALT+A. The macro could check to see if ehome.exe is running, and if so... close it, and start XBMC (or whatever). If ehome.exe is not running, then the macro would do the opposite.

[n0mdep]

n0mdep, have you actually set Media Center up to launch a Modern app? Did you use Relaunch?

Sorry for the delayed response.

YES, launching Win 8 apps from Media Center works. Most apps will require a mouse to navigate though - I use a Logitech K700 keyboard/touchpad combo. Close a Win 8 app launched from WMC and you are returned to WMC, which is nice.

(For Win 8.1, move your mouse to the top of a Win 8 app and a title bar appears with a close button.)

I use MCE Reset Toolbox (see my original post above). I have a menu item "Apps" with Plex (native app), NFL Gamepass (Win 8 app) and Netflix (Win 8 app) in it.

[n0mdep]

More info (and more methods for launching -- which may or may not working depending on the app in question) here: http://forums.mydigitallife.info/thread ... plications

I can't load that link but I know that to launch netflix it is as simple as typing "netfilx://" in the run box.

^ This is correct (and is covered in the link).

I had trouble with the NFL Gamepass app I use, which would not launch in the way described. Hence the more comprehensive look at how to call Win 8 apps. Just in case anyone runs into the same issue.