Creating Custom Start Menu Strips

The following steps provide an outline of how to create a custom Start menu strip in Windows Media Center:

  1. Register the application (see Using the Registration API or Utility with XML and Writing Registry Keys Directly).

  2. Create a registry entry for the registration XML at [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Start Menu\Applications\{AppGUID}] to include the following keys:

    Name Type Description
    Title REG_SZ The display name for the custom Start menu strip.
    Category REG_SZ The category name that you used in the registration XML.
    OnStartMenu REG_SZ Set to true to display the menu strip.
    TimeStamp DWORD Set to a hexadecimal value to indicate the number of seconds that have elapsed since midnight on January 1, 2000 C.E.

    Note   When two custom Start menu strips are registered, Windows Media Center displays the newer application first (the one with the higher TimeStamp value).

  3. To modify the order in which tiles are displayed on the custom Start menu strip, edit the TimeStamp values generated by the registration API for each custom category entry point in the registry information at [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Extensibility\Categories\CustomCategory\ApplicationName\{EntryPointGUID}].

    Note   Windows Media Center orders the tiles according to the TimeStamp values, with newer timestamps after older ones.

    You can also directly add TimeStamp registry values in sequential order in the Registry table of an MSI to control the order in which the tiles are displayed.

For more information, see the following samples (located in [WMCSDK_InstallPath]\Samples\Register Application):

  • Register.Application.1.xml
  • Registry.Application.1.reg
  • Register.Application.2.xml
  • Registry.Application.2.reg

See Also