Media Center won't start

[webminster]

For some reason my WMC test instance on my laptop started hanging the other day... I brilliantly decided to run the recovery task to start over.

The recovery task never finishes (runs for hours). If I end it, it shows the message "Class not registered (0x80040154)."
I've tried turning off and on the WMC feature afterward, as well.
I've also uninstalled all the addons for it I can find.

But, after all this, trying to start WMC just pops an alert, "Windows Meda Center has stopped working." and nothing else I can find in Event Log.
Anyone seen this, been able to recover from it without a Windows reinstall (not a possibility on this machine, really).
Thanks in advance.

[snoop168]

Remove media center but then also go and delete the c:\programdata\ehome (might be programdata\microsoft\ehome don't remember) and then re add wmc.

[DavidinCT]

Do you have scheduled recordings you want to back up ? Or anything else ?

For schedule programs, this is quick and easy,

http://seanmauch.com/seans-wmc-backup/

Then as said above, Control panel> Programs and features> Turn Windows Components on or off> Media Features> Select Windows Media Center and Windows Media Player. After Windows Removes them, then the folder C:\Programdata\Microsoft\ehome delete it. Then Reboot.

After a reboot, go back into Programs and features and re-add Media Center and Media Player. Reboot, then try again

[webminster]

Brilliant, guys, thanks. I removed a couple of ehome folders I found under %APPDATA% as well, for good measure. It did start up.