Downgrade Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center to Windows 8.1 Pro
2014-07
i077
I built my own computer, and bought a copy of Windows 8 Pro about a year ago. Entered my product key and everything during setup, went smoothly. When Windows 8.1 came out I upgraded through the Windows Store app. I also wanted to try out Windows Media Center so, I'll be honest here, I looked up a product key for it (didn't buy) and it somehow worked, so I had Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center. I just wanted to try it out, not keep it.
Unfortunately, the key was blocked, so Windows is now nagging me to activate every 3 hours or so. I want to return to my legit product key to stop this and return to Windows 8.1 Pro, but when I enter the key I bought (remember, it's a Windows 8 key, not 8.1), it says that the key can't be used to activate this edition of Windows. What should I do? I want to avoid clean re-installing Windows 8 if possible.
Questioner
I'm running Windows Vista SP2 64-bit, but it was SP1 when I bought the laptop. It came with Windows Media Center, but I originally found no use for it, so I deleted the shortcut.
Now I DO want to use it, and I can't find it anywhere. However, when I insert a DVD, the option to play it with Windows Media Center will appear, and it will launch Windows Media Center, so I must still have it on my system somewhere.
My question is, where? Is there an easy way to just run the program using the Run window?
William Hilsum
Media center is located at :
%windir%\ehome\ehshell.exe
Create a new shortcut to that and it should work fine... You can then move it to the start menu or wherever you want.
harrymc
You can create the shortcut with:
Location: %SystemRoot%\ehome\ehshell.exe
Name: Windows Media Center
When the shortcut is finished, in its Properties you can add
Start in: %SystemRoot%\ehome