Reset Library in Windows Media Center on Vista Ultimate

Question

Is there anyway to reset Media Center so it rebuilds the picture, video, and audio library?  I need to start all over again since it will not let me control my own destiny.

Media Center has found all kinds of stuff on my drives that I don't want showing up in it's menus.  No, it is not ____, but I see how that could be a real problem.  It is finding all kinds of misc photos that I don't want shown.  I should not have to rearrange my hard drive in the attempt to hide stuff from Media Center.  This is just plain crazy!  Media Player 11 is much better behaved.

Once Media Center finds something it will not let go of it!  At least it seems that way to me.

It would be a great improvement if Media Center just showed you a list of folders that it finds and then gives you the option to delete or add to that list.  MS apparently dumbed it down so much you can't do that.  Then after that is should rescan and update everything.  Media Center development team please talk to the Media Player 11 development team and see how they are doing it.

Apparently it can't detect that I have moved my Public folder to another drive.  It is still searching for C:/Users/Public and will not give up looking for it there.  I have empied out all My Music, Video, Pictures, Etc under my user so it will not find anything next time around.  Now I just need to find a way to reset the library from scratch.  That would be a nice option to have under Task!

Another option would be to flag a folder for Media Player/Media Center inclusion with a on/off toggle set with a right click on the folder.  Carbonite does this for it's online back ups and it couldn't be more simple!

This really makes a great product just about useless for me.

Answer 1

BajaPaul,

Windows Media Center pulls some of your Library information from Windows Media Player. We will need to edit your library from there.

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Add or remove monitored folders from your library:

Open **Windows Media Player,**press the Library tab and choose the type of media (Music, Pictures, Video, Recorded TV), then press F3 on your keyboard to open the Add To Library window, press Advanced Options, make your folder selections for your library (by selecting Add, Remove Ignore or Enable), click OK.

Now we will Remove unwanted existing content from your Library:

Press the Library tab, choose the type of media (Music, Pictures, Video, Recorded TV). Now select Library from the left side panel, from the Additional Views, select Folder. You can now right-click the desired folder and select Delete, at the notification box choose Delete from library only, press OK. Alternatively you can right-click any media file and follow the above steps to delete.

Note: The Pictures and Video Libraries in Windows Media Center automatically monitor your Current User's Pictures and Video folders. Any media content added to these folders will be automatically scanned into your Media Center, this includs the Public folder under C:/Users, place only the content you wish to add in them.

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Report your result so that we may further assist you. Thank you for using the Microsoft Vista Support Community.

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Rami

Microsoft Answers Support Engineer

Visit our Microsoft Answers Feedback Forum and let us know what you think.

Answer 2

BajaPaul,

Have you attempted to manually delete the media player database?

Click Start -> click **All Programs ->**click Accessories -> click Run, type the following in the Open filed:

Collapse this imageExpand this image%LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\ Medial Player

Click OK. Select and delete the files in this folder. Open Windows Media Player to initiate a rescan of your library. Follow the previously outlined steps to further customize your library.

If this step is still not satisfactory, then as of now, the only way to completely restore Windows Media Center is through a clean reinstallation of Vista. Please see **Installing and reinstalling Windows**for a detailed procedure.

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Please report your result so that we may further assist you. Thank you for using the Microsoft Vista Support Community.

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Rami

Microsoft Answers Support Engineer

Visit our Microsoft Answers Feedback Forum and let us know what you think.

Answer 3

I have this problem iin reverse. I can't get the Media Center to add pictures. It adds the folder name but does not scan the pictures.

Answer 4

Hello,

I have the same problem as the others on this forum, I can't get rid of the unwanted folders on WMC. I have tried all your solutions but the damn thing still shows up the folders I do not want and some of them do not have anything in them. How annoying. Is there some sort of an update to this crappy thing? There is no way I will reinstall windows as it's such a time consuming and frustrating procedure.

Answer 5

Hi Rami,

Thanks for your reply and help.

I already figured out the WMP11 Library stuff and the Local Media Directories stuff and have taken actions there.  What I was looking for was a way to reset WMC like it was new and never used before.

WMC is still picking up unwanted and unmonitored directories regardless of what I set in WMP11.  It has a mind of its own and will not listen to me.  It is also trying to grab some other stuff from Adobe Photo Shop Elements which I have long ago uninstalled.  It is also grabbing some odd directory, which I cant find, related to my printer scanner.  Of course it is still looking for 'shared' and Public folders that I have deleted or moved.  I think WMC is more stubborn than me.  I can't find a way to remove these unwanted directories and other stuff.

Like I said, WMC doesn't implement folder management very well but I know there is nothing you can do about this.

I just need to reset it to new or forget about it for another year or two and see if MS improves on it's folder management procedure in a future version of WMC.

BTW, this site does not work with Opera Web Browser very well and forces me to load IE8 to respond.