2012-01-13, 06:49
I found a cool article on HowTo Geek relating to making shortcut links that open specific pages in Windows Media Center. I liked this idea originally because i could have a 1-click to get the netflix for MCE (i like that interface better than the web view, or the one XBMCFlicks has, no offense).
The article basically describes making a new shortcut, which points to MCE (called ehshell.exe) and then changing the landing page based on its registry entry.
Now that i've built my first XBMC media center, I put a blu-ray drive in it, and lo and behold, Cyberlink put a shortcut to its player into MCE. so i found the registry entry and created a shortcut that opens directly to the DVD player menu.
The simple task now is using the Executor plugin to minimize XBMC, open the shortcut, and play a movie. when i'm done, i programmed a button on my remote to press ALT+F4 to close MCE and XBMC re-maximizes.
There are other programs you could do this with as well, but these are the 2 that i've used this for in the past. It keeps a fairly clean media center, still no KB and mouse input, and i have all the customization built into XBMC.
It's the best of both worlds!
The article basically describes making a new shortcut, which points to MCE (called ehshell.exe) and then changing the landing page based on its registry entry.
Now that i've built my first XBMC media center, I put a blu-ray drive in it, and lo and behold, Cyberlink put a shortcut to its player into MCE. so i found the registry entry and created a shortcut that opens directly to the DVD player menu.
The simple task now is using the Executor plugin to minimize XBMC, open the shortcut, and play a movie. when i'm done, i programmed a button on my remote to press ALT+F4 to close MCE and XBMC re-maximizes.
There are other programs you could do this with as well, but these are the 2 that i've used this for in the past. It keeps a fairly clean media center, still no KB and mouse input, and i have all the customization built into XBMC.
It's the best of both worlds!
