Windows Media Center Update Notification

No remote control. Dell is 64 bit, HP is 64 bit old Compaq desktop is 32 bit and Compaq laptop is 64 bit. Once in a while I can get it to work on the Dell but have never seen it work on the Compaq laptop.

There are two registry entries for ehTray.exe (assuming this is part of th ehTray.exe operation) and those entries are the same on both the Dell and the HP.

I noticed that the hover doesn't necessarily work on other people's computers that I've set-up for cableCARD.

In the FWIW department. The Dell is a factory load of Win7 from last August (they replaced my XPS420 when it died), the HP was shipped with Vista HP with free update to Win7 which I did, the Compaq was a purchase (family pack) of Win7 updates and I used the installed XP Home as the base for it's install. The Compaq Laptop is a recent purchase with factory install of Win7.

From what I've found, the HP update version still had a HKCurrent User key for Run ehTray.exe. The Dell didn't have the key, the laptop didn't have the key and I haven't checked the Compaq update from XP Home.

The only other registry entries are the same for ehTray.exe.

John

Edit: I just completed running Win7 Update Tuesday on all the Win7 boxes and after restart and running MC and Get Lateset Guide Listings, I have exactly the same results. No pop up on the Dell or the Compaq laptop, it works on the HP Desktop and Compaq desktop. All four machines now have the addition of Run string ehTray.exe with C:\Windows\ehome\ehTray.exe

I must be missing something (a switch some other entry beside H Key Current User ..... Run

John

The saga continues. Now I normally get the pop up on the Dell, but the HP which was fairly consistent has not booted with the pop up for the last couple of months. Have no idea what might have changed to cause this.

Update: As of February 22, 2012 the pop up has stopped working on all my machines. I don't know if it will magically restart but now none of them display the pop up.

Wow! and interesting discovery and it worked on my Compaq lap top but it didn't work on the HP lap top. Both the Desktop Dell & HP are working right now so the next time it fails on a reboot I'll run through this routine.

Now the HP lap top has never displayed information, the Compaq would display and disappear so it will be interesting to see if it holds.

Did you try a reboot and see if it still worked? There doesn't seem to be a way to assign ehtray.exe to run by default under administrator--or it isn't an option under compatibility on my machines.

But thanks, its a great tip!!

I tried it on the Dell 9100 today after a reboot and had just the icon and no pop-up and it didn't work. Sometimes on the Dell & HP a log out and log in will restore the pop-up. My theory is its something attached to the ehtray.exe service but I can't find it.

I've had mixed luck with the ehtray.exe end process and then running it from the ehome directory as administrator. BUT what I noticed today is that there are multiple instances of ehtray.exe running. It looks as if there is a copy for each extender which is logged on to the system. So as a test I ended process on the copy in task manager but there were three left in Resource Monitor. I logged out and back in and still found a couple of copies running. But I found that I could right click on the item in the CPU setting of resource monitor and choose end process. Then you have to wait for it to close. After they were closed I opened ehome and right clicked on ehtray.exe and chose run as administrator. After a few seconds it was added back to Task Manger and within a few more minutes I had a total of four copies running in Resource Monitor.

I've found the best method is to wait for the automatic update to run the task so I won't know now until tomorrow if I get an icon with a pop up or if it still is "silent."

Update 8/18 7AM, well the pop up is working (currently shows Client Mant. Complete) but turning off all the other "ehtray.exe" running and then starting one on the Dell as administrator and letting the machine restart the rest seems to have worked.

Still looking for a way to mark this service to start properly at boot up or start of Media Center to work properly all the time.

Anyone with more advice, please comment.

John