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General discussion

Media Center disappears

May 7, 2008 6:54PM PDT

For the second time in three months, WMC has spontaneously disappeared. Suddenly the shortcut on my start menu says that the item it refers to has been moved or changed.

This does not coincide with any new installation or system modification.

Last time I fixed it by doing a complete repair install but that involves uninstalling SP1 first, then doing the repair install then reinstalling SP1! An object lesson in how to make something inconvenient even more so.

WMC doesn't appear in c:\program files, nor in control panel\programs and features. Neither does an sfc \scannow restore it.

Can anyone help please?

Discussion is locked

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Same problem
Jun 19, 2008 1:27AM PDT

Yes! I am having the same problem, but my problem isn't just limited to vista media center, media player has also disappeared. This happened to me last year too before SP1 and I just reinstalled windows. Now with SP1 out, I'm not sure how to go about doing that without losing files. I really don't want to go through the hassle at all though. It disappeared again a few months ago for the second time, but I could never find help online. I even went to get help from Microsoft and they didn't know what the problem was.

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I fixed it
Jun 19, 2008 1:53AM PDT

Okay, this worked for me:
1. Click Start
2. Click Default Programs
3. Click "Set Program Access and Computer Defaults"
(UAC will yell at you, just click continue.)
4. Click on the "custom" bubble.
5. Scroll down to the "Choose a Default Media Player" section.
6. Make sure the "Enable Access to This Program" for Media Center and Media Player are checked.

That is it! I hope it works for you too.

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When Windows Media (Player) Center disappears
May 25, 2010 9:36AM PDT

Thank you, thank you, Brivix! I managed to fix it. I believe my Windows Media Center disappeared when I downloaded Google Chrome, but now everything works.

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geniuz
Jul 9, 2010 12:35PM PDT

damm that was kinda hard kuz my computer is in spanish but it worked.5 stars