14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft decided to discontinue Windows Media Center in Windows 10, so the new operating system doesn’t come with the famous entertainment software, as the Redmond-based giant hopes that all the apps pre-installed in the new OS version can compensate for the lack of WMC.
That’s not happening though, and despite the free DVD player that Microsoft is offering to users who upgrade from a WMC version of Windows, many still want the media pack to be available in Windows 10.
And fortunately, there’s now a way to do that easily, but keep in mind that it’s all unofficial and Microsoft does not encourage anyone to resort to third-party tricks like this one to use Windows Media Center.
The workaround to install Windows Media Center on Windows 10 was posted on MDL forums (via WindowsCentral), and there’s still no statement from Microsoft regarding it, so it’s hard to tell whether the company has any plans to block it in a future OS update or not.
How to install it
Before everything, make sure you create a backup of Windows 10, just to be on the safe side in case something goes wrong.
What you need before getting started is this Windows Media Center addon and Windows 10, either build 10240, which is the RTM version we all got on July 29, or 10532, the first preview build released to insiders after the grand debut of the OS.
Unpack the archive and run the file called "_TestRights.cmd" with administrator rights. You should see a command prompt initializing and running some commands. If this happens, everything goes right. When the process ends, reboot your computer, open the extracted folder and run “Installer.cm” with administrator privileges.
Once the install comes to an end, you should be able to run Windows Media Center just like in Windows 7 and 8.1. The icon should be pinned to the taskbar for easy access.