Windows Media Center - wont launch...due to Software Restriction Policy???
Current system:Windows Vista x64 Ultimate RETAIL installed onto clean system. UAC disabledUsing full administrator account w/ no restrictions Problem:Anytime I attempt to launch Windows Media Center or Media Center Extender I receive the following popup error and the program does not attempt to to even start: Error:[Windows Media Center"Windows cannot open this program because it has been prevented by a software restriction policy. For more information contact your system administrator." Summary:When I initialy installed the OS, this problem did not exist. I was able to launch WMC just fine. Only after a couple month of reinstalling necessary base applications do I now get this error. My family cannot even use it as an extender for the XBOX360 anymore. From what i can tell there are a lot of people with this issue and NO SOLUTION from MS as yet. I did see in one post that someone else had this error and was able to correct it by setting WMC as the default application in "Default Programs --> Set Program Access and Computer Defaults" This did not work for me at all. At this point I am at a complete loss. Any insight would be appreciated. -J
July 26th, 2007 5:25pm

Hi Did you turn on Software Restriction in the Local Security Policy and set the default to Disallow? If so you may need to add the start menu folder to as an allowed path, because by default shortcuts in the start menu are not allowed to execute. Peter
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July 27th, 2007 11:27am

Hello Peter, Under Local secpol, If I select "Software Restriction Policies" it states that no policies are defined. I tried enabling the policies then making the following folders unrestricted: C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu & C:\windows\ehome Still no dice...
July 27th, 2007 12:19pm

Hi, JMVL! Try changing your settings under ControlPanel/Programs/Program Acess & Comp Defaults and also under ControlPanel/Programs/Set your default programs. I had the same issue and when I changed the settings here Media Centre started working again. Good luck! Deon
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July 28th, 2007 4:24am

Deon, This seems to be the common answer that I have see may have worked for others. For me, no matter what I change these settings to beit "Microsoft, Non-Micrisoft or Custom", still the same issue. I have tried disabling all of the non-MS and setting the defaults on WMC and making it the default app again etc.. The other media players installed on this system are iTunes, Winamp and Realplayer (as well as Media Center and Media Player). I am starting to wonder if there is som incompatibility with one of these. On your system that you fixed, what is installed? Thanks
July 28th, 2007 7:48am

Hi there! I only have iTunes as an extra media player. Maybe you should look deeper into Winamp and Realplayer? Good luck! Deon
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July 29th, 2007 5:02am

Thank god for you Deon!! This was my issue. I had changed the Default Programs setting to custom and did not check the "Allow Access to Program" button for media center or player or IE. Hopefully now my 360 will connect to my PC again!At least my icons are all back in Vista.A nice big warning would have been nice Microsoft, hint hint.
November 27th, 2007 9:23pm

Don't know if you will read this but THANK YOU! Your solution worked for me and I have been without WMC for about 6 months now. Every now and again I would try and figure it out but gave up cause the solutions looked to complicated. Thanks again.
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July 29th, 2008 10:38pm

This did not work for me. I have re-installed W7 and tried the tricks above, no success. My version is supposed to be the Windons Enterprise, it reads however WINDOWS 7 ULTIMATE, build 7000. Possibly related, I also get a constant and anoying message "This copy of Windows is not genuine". Ive tried to change the product key to the one I was provided with by MS, and I get the following error code: 0xc004e003
September 8th, 2009 7:19am

Hi, I managed to get around this by going to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\WindowsMediaCenter in the registry. There was a DWORD in it called "MediaCenter" with a value of "1". Deleting that DWORD allowed Media Center to launch properly. Take note that this was done with Vista Home Premium though, and as a disclaimer, be careful with editing your registry. Hope that helps. Cheers Hi, thanks a lot Requiem. It just worked for me as well. However, mine was under LocalMachine instead of CurrentUser. I have been searching for days now and just managed to sort it out with this fix. Hope it will not affect my system stability. Cheers
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January 2nd, 2010 8:24am

Just wanted to let you know that this worked for me. Thank you.
April 26th, 2010 7:35pm

thank you so much!
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July 12th, 2010 6:39pm

This worked for me. I have w7 ultimate edition. The others wouldn't work 4 me. Got it from another forum. Must thank that guy. Hope it helps!!! ..... (you, having Home Premium, have no GPEdit), you can still check the Registry keys that are affected by the mentioned policies. (GPEdit is but a nice frontend to various Registry settings, anyways.) Take a look at the following keys: HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\WindowsMediaCenter\MediaCenter HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\WindowsMediaCenter\MediaCenter A ValueData of 0 = MC can run; 1= MC is disabled. Standard warning: incorrect editing of the Windows Registry can have far-reaching consequences, and may result in your system becoming unbootable (possibly requiring reinstalling the operating system.) Be careful!!!!! Don't change anything in there yet. Just open regedit, and take a look for those two keys. If they're there, post the ValueData displayed. If they're not there, post that they aren't there.
September 9th, 2010 1:42pm

This worked for me. I have w7 ultimate edition. The others wouldn't work 4 me. Got it from another forum. Must thank that guy. Hope it helps!!! ..... (you, having Home Premium, have no GPEdit), you can still check the Registry keys that are affected by the mentioned policies. (GPEdit is but a nice frontend to various Registry settings, anyways.) Take a look at the following keys: HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\WindowsMediaCenter\MediaCenter HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\WindowsMediaCenter\MediaCenter A ValueData of 0 = MC can run; 1= MC is disabled. Standard warning: incorrect editing of the Windows Registry can have far-reaching consequences, and may result in your system becoming unbootable (possibly requiring reinstalling the operating system.) Be careful!!!!! Don't change anything in there yet. Just open regedit, and take a look for those two keys. If they're there, post the ValueData displayed. If they're not there, post that they aren't there. This worked but at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/POLICIES/MICROSOFT/WindowsMediaCenter/ change the MediaCenter key from 1 to 0. Good luck,
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September 16th, 2010 8:06pm

Nash007 - Your resolution worked for me with one exception. I am running “Windows 7 Enterprise 64-Bit.” I didn't have this in the registry, "HKCUSoftware\Policies\Microsoft\WindowsMediaCenter\MediaCenter." I did have this one "HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\WindowsMediaCenter\MediaCenter" and I changed the value from 1 to 0 and it worked. Thank you.
October 31st, 2010 10:37am

Thanks - this worked like a charm for me, where other suggestions did not.
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December 8th, 2010 10:08pm

Hi all i'm running vista and it did'nt work for me tryed alsorts just wont work....Help please
December 9th, 2010 5:14am

OMG I freakin LOVE YOU! This worked for me I was going crazy for months trying to figure this crap out. THANK YOU~!
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April 5th, 2011 8:26pm

Hey, this worked great using vista home prem thanks so much. I did not delete the entry but changed it's value from 1 to 0 and it worked
April 27th, 2011 10:31pm

Hi, I managed to get around this by going to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\WindowsMediaCenter in the registry. There was a DWORD in it called "MediaCenter" with a value of "1". Deleting that DWORD allowed Media Center to launch properly. Take note that this was done with Vista Home Premium though, and as a disclaimer, be careful with editing your registry. Hope that helps. Cheers This did the trick for me, except that the DWORD was located @HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\[rest is the same]. This is on Windows 7 Ultimate. Also, I just changed the DWORD value to 0 rather than deleting it. Background: I received this error after trying and failing to install and use two other programs for recording and viewing live TV with a tuner card. I have XBMC 11 on this PC, and was hoping to find a way to use it for my PVR needs.
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April 29th, 2012 6:37pm

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