Windows 10: How to add Media Center to Tech Preview

Windows says its not activated after adding mediacenter feature to Windows 10 using my own Windows 8 mediacenter key. Please advice

 

Hi and Welcome to Ten Forums. You probably will need to call Microsoft and do a phone activation. You could always change the key to the one in this thread. Microsoft probably thinks you have the key in more than one OS.

 

I installed media center as per the instructions and everything worked BUT now the desktop background says Windows 8.1 Pro. I guess that is a small bug. *Cool

 

Thanks, worked for me too,

FYI, Yes and I noticed as well it changes the Desktop watermark to say Windows 8.1 but As Well look under Properties of My Computer (This PC) and here too it changes everything there to Windows 8.1 too, hmmmm, to bad it does that.

 

I had to use phone activation after using my key as well, there was no problem activating that way.

 

Thanks for the reply. I have now activated my pc through phone activation.*Party*Party*Party

 

Anyone else get the Windows Logo on their System page after installing WMC?

 

Yes, read post 18 in this thread where I also talk about that too.

I reinstalled the OS to get rid of WMC since the OS installs so fast on an SSD anyway, perhaps when the RTM comes out and this is squared away I may put WMC back, but for now I really don't need it for what I do.
Thanks to the OP for posting though, it was fun to play with it.

 

I did this myself, and used my original WMC key I got from Microsoft when they were giving away WMC & Win8 for $39.99 (Jan '13.) I had a spare 8.1 box lying around that I used for a Win10-TP *upgrade* install from 8.1. The first time the upgrade worked perfectly but it either removed or disabled the 8.1 WMC installation, and other than that worked perfectly except for labeling everything Windows 8.1, which I didn't like. My first attempt at doing an upgrade install right over the top of Win10TP w/8.1WMC failed--it took me all the way through the process and on the final boot hit me with an error stating that "for unknown reasons" the Win10TP upgrade had failed and the system was reverting to what I was trying to escape--the Win10TP w/8.1 WMC...*Wink

Solved it by going into Programs & Features/Turn Windows Features On or Off/ and clearing the check-box for WMC under the "Media" check box. After WMC was uninstalled, I repeated the Win10TP upgrade install *again* and this time it worked perfectly and the original Win10TP upgrade was restored.

Most likely, there'd have been no harm in leaving WMC installed, but I did notice that along with changing the Win10TP labeling to "Windows 8.1 with Media Center," the color of my log-in/out screens also reverted to what it had been under the original 8.1 installation--so I felt like there may have been other things less obvious that would have changed in the TP from its default state--so that's why I got rid of WMC in the TP.

Funny thing is...I really *didn't want* WMC....! I was just curious about it and so, nerd that I am, I did what I've related above. I've been using VLC for a long time and I find it superior to WMC. Anyway, that's my experience with this experiment, for what it is worth...

In case this isn't really clear, here's what I did:

1) Installed the Win10TP over the top of an existing "8.1 with WMC" install--worked perfectly, and disabled WMC

2) Installed WMC into my upgraded Win10TP installation, which changed the labeling to "8.1 with WMC," etc., using my original Microsoft WMC key

3) Attempted a *second* upgrade right over the first, in hopes of getting rid of WMC and restoring the Win10TP to its original state--the upgrade attempt failed

4)Uninstalled WMC from the hybrid "Win10TP/8.1 with WMC" installation I had created, as related above

5) Attempted a *third* upgrade of Win10TP which succeeded, leaving me at step 1) above again...*Wink

No more such experiments...!

 

If you upgrade to ProWMC, you won't get any new builds offered.because Insider Program doesn't support SKU's ProWMC

 

That's not good!
That's probably why I'm getting no updates!

 

Is there anyway to remove WMC and go back to the W10 Evaluation Build without having to re-install the OS?

 

Not sure, but I've got a whack of trouble here! Still tryin to sort it out! I'm probably going to have to do a clean install! *Sad

If you installed WMC on W10TP, it creates a folder in C:/Windows/System32 called 'ehome'. Maybe you can right click on the .exe and choose uninstall! *fingers crossed*

 

Thanks Edwin. It's worth a shot. Going through Add/Remove programs didn't do anything.

 

If that doesn't work, do you have an image to restore to?