MediaCenterThemer - Windows 10 Inspired Theme

[jfreiman]

I have been working off and on creating a "Windows 10 Inspired" theme for the Windows Media Center Themer tool/utility.

What I have created for myself is a "refreshed" theme based off of the popular Modern8Theme created a few years ago.

I have not had the time (or patience) to reproduce all the Tiles and Icons used in the Modern8 Theme, but I have replaced most of them with artwork from Windows 10.

When replacing one tile or icon with a new one, I tried to also create the multiple sizes and active and nonactive versions of the updated tiles as well. I'm not a graphic artist, but I think that what I have completed so far with Paint.net is pretty good. Where possible, I have extracted the Windows 10 ico/icl files and used them as guides for the "10 Inspired" versions. The artwork I created was made with the RTM build of Windows 10 -- I'm pretty sure I updated the artwork from the Preview builds I was using before hand (I initially created these themes for my Windows 8.1 PC).

The colors used in the menus has been simplified as well, with each Menu Row having the same color across the horizontal options.

Since I access Media Center via an Xbox 360 99% of the time, that is the artwork I updated from the Modern8 theme. There remains some desktop interface artwork leftover from the Modern8 theme, but most of the artwork should be in place for MCX.

The changes made to the Program Guide, Record, etc icons have all been refreshed with artwork from Windows 10 and the colors have been replaced with the 10 default color pallet as I have done throughout -- this is my 3rd attempt at updating the artwork for Recorded TV and I think this should serve as a good basis for any changes I make going forward -- the Xbox One inspired Guide was awful!

I have not been inspired or enlightened with the skills required to make matching lighting effects or write HTML to make more drastic changes to the 10 Inspired Theme, but that could change -- so far my family spread across the country is happy with the changes and I have used there feedback to make adjustments, etc.

Below is a composite of what the Start Menu looks like. The wallpaper in the background is not entirely "correct" and for that reason, I am attaching a separate image of the desktop -- as it actually appears.

Since I also own a license of My Movies and that app daily for watching my archived television series, etc, I also updated the artwork which is used for My Movies Start Menu. I did not update the Search icon in this case to a "Cortana" branding and left it as a magnifying glass -- this was not by accident. I left it this way to show that it's for this database only and does not reach across to the other apps/software running on MCE.

composite of start rows (My Movies artwork is a separate download, actual screen not this dark)

screen with actual wallpaper

Guide

Download link for My Movies Start Row, 10 Inspired http://rapidgator.net/file/ac5211a2eb1f ... s.zip.html


Download link for 10 Inspired theme for Media Center Themer http://rapidgator.net/file/f241a00d6061 ... r.zip.html

[Scallica]

Nice theme! Two requests, can you put the theme in MCT format? I was unable to load the theme using MCThemer. Also, can you attach the theme as a zip to the forum? Rapid gator is a pain and if you mistype the captcha once, it bans you for an hour.

[jjwatmyself]

Really nice work and generous contribution of your time and efforts to the community.

[.Nico]

Look nice, however, Media Themer will not load:

2304 15/09/27 13:15:53| ---- Session started ----
2304 15/09/27 13:15:53| Loading themer dll
2304 15/09/27 13:15:53| Process launched (x64): "C:\WINDOWS\ehome\ehshell.exe"
2304 15/09/27 13:15:53| Text format will be logged
2304 15/09/27 13:15:53| This version of Media Center is not supported: 10.0
2304 15/09/27 13:15:53| Unloading themer dll
2304 15/09/27 13:15:53| ---- Session ended ----

Any idea how to solve this issue?

.Nico

[jfreiman]

I'm feeling really stupid right now, but can't for the life of me see how to edit my original post!?

Anyways, first, here are the files (not on rapidgator) - I was using that site so that I could route all my different forum posts to this one location to make it easier to post updates, but I totally understand the issue -- I didn't know that these small files wouldn't require captcha, etc.

Win10 Inspired - MediaCenterThemer.zip

Theme folder

(5.43 MiB) Downloaded 478 times

Win10 Inspired - MyMovies.zip

my movies complement

(571.25 KiB) Downloaded 303 times

As for compiling or changing the format to an mct format is beyond me, I wouldn't know where to begin!

This is the folder structure that has worked on both my Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 systems.

C:\ProgramData\Media Center Themer\10Inspired.xml
c:\ProgramData\Media Center Themer\10Inspired\
C:\ProgramData\Media Center Themer\MCT Tools.exe
C:\ProgramData\Media Center Themer\MCSFix.exe (run at startup to prevent saved menu order from reverting to default)

There should already be a folder titlted "theme" in this folder as well as an mctdefault.xml file
Just add the zipped folder above into that folder. Then open the mct tools.exe to chose which theme you want to use/run

MCThemer MCTools MCSFix.zip

Here are the versions fo MCT Tools, MCThemer and MCFix I have been using successfully.

(2.49 MiB) Downloaded 463 times

[jfreiman]

Look nice, however, Media Themer will not load:

2304 15/09/27 13:15:53| ---- Session started ----
2304 15/09/27 13:15:53| Loading themer dll
2304 15/09/27 13:15:53| Process launched (x64): "C:\WINDOWS\ehome\ehshell.exe"
2304 15/09/27 13:15:53| Text format will be logged
2304 15/09/27 13:15:53| This version of Media Center is not supported: 10.0
2304 15/09/27 13:15:53| Unloading themer dll
2304 15/09/27 13:15:53| ---- Session ended ----

Any idea how to solve this issue?

.Nico

I don't know what this issue is that you are experiencing, but I can tell you that I have loaded the Windows Media Center version "7" - WindowsMediaCenter_6.3.9600.16384_x64_v7

The included Media Center in that package is stated as being, "Windows Media Center from Windows 8.1 (6.3.9600.16384)" and not "10" as your error would suggest.

[Scallica]

I'm feeling really stupid right now, but can't for the life of me see how to edit my original post!?

We don't allow the editing of posts after 1 hour.

Thanks for attaching the theme files. I was able to import the theme successfully. Nice job!

[jfreiman]

I'm feeling really stupid right now, but can't for the life of me see how to edit my original post!?

We don't allow the editing of posts after 1 hour.

Thanks for attaching the theme files. I was able to import the theme successfully. Nice job!

Thank you, and thank you!

[IT Troll]

Thanks for your work on this and for sharing. You do the community proud.

So we now have Media Center ported to Windows 10 and skinned like Windows 10. Who needs Microsoft!

[pedruxi]

Congratulations for this excellent work.

Please put new link to: MCThemer MCTools MCSFix.zip

It is not working and you can not download the file

[tobycth3]

Doesn't work on my Win7 setup. Almost wondering if its missing some files or something. Like the default.XML file maybe?

[relmoos]

This theme is excellent! Definitely gives Windows Media Center a new boost!

I've added some subtle background animation to the theme. I checked it for two different resolutions and both seemed to perform well. All you have to do is download the attached images and replace the files of the same name found in the 10Inspired\Images\BackgroundAnimation subdirectory with these two.

Enjoy!

[relmoos]

I also did a small tweak of the program details menu. It reintroduces a bit of the old blue, but in combination with elements of the new blue background. Does it remind you too much to the original style, or is it a genuine enhancement? What do you guys think?

The only thing I want to change but haven't figured out, is the way the lower text is centered vertically and horizontally. People have any idea on how to do that?

[wmcuser1233]

Looks great jfreiman. Anyone know how to disable the transparency when you are navigating the guide while watching live tv? I prefer the blue background instead of black.

[wmcuser1233]

I also did a small tweak of the program details menu. It reintroduces a bit of the old blue, but in combination with elements of the new blue background. Does it remind you too much to the original style, or is it a genuine enhancement? What do you guys think?

The only thing I want to change but haven't figured out, is the way the lower text is centered vertically and horizontally. People have any idea on how to do that?

Looks good to me will you be uploading those files at some point?

[relmoos]

Replace attached files with the originals found in the 10inspired/images subdirectory. You also have to delete or comment out the following lines in the 10Inspired.xml file:

<Resource Id="DETAILS.BODY.PANE.PNG">
<Replace File="10Inspired\Images\DETAILS.BODY.PANE.png"/>
</Resource>

[wmcuser1233]

Great! Thank you relmoos.

[jachin99]

So I hate to be the only one in the forums asking the new guy question but, how do I install this? So far I have tried simply moving the extracted files into windows ten theme folder. Do I have to go through and place each component/background or icon in individual folders or can I link this to windows somehow and let the OS do all of the work? Thank you.

[DavidinCT]

I like.... How do you get the channel numbers to show up ? I have Channel logos XL but, not all channels have a logo, and besides my wife likes to see the channel she is on...

[werds]

This looks nice, do you have a version that hues towards black theme? I prefer my WMC to have a high contrast black theme And I am contemplating upgrading to Win 10 and trying out the Win 10 WMC setup... maybe lol