Windows 7 and MCE Remote

[Melloware]

I am hoping the EG community can help me. Many of my users have upgraded to Windows 7 using the MCE Remote with the standard MS Driver and NOT the replacement driver.

In the past with XP and Vista if you edited the registry and removed HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\HidIr\Remotes\745a17a0-74d3-11d0-b6fe-00a0c90f57da and deleted from "CodeSetNum0" to "CodeSetNum3" it would disable the default MS behavior with the remote. Thus removing the "Double Button Push" affect of having both EG and MS fire events for the same remote button.

Well, apparently in Windows 7 if you delete those registry keys then other applications like Mediaportal or EG that listen for the HID signals from the remote no longer see those HID Signals. I have had it suggested to Run As Administrator but that also does not appear to work.

Is anyone else having this issue or have any suggestions to get the MS remote to work in Windows 7? Any help or thoughts would be appreciated.

[stottle]

I was able to get EG events from an MCE remote in Win7 by turning off UAC. Obviously that's not a good long term answer. If you find a better way, please let me know. I'll post back here if I find anything else that works.

[edit: I was surprised to not see any events, but also not see any indication of UAC stopping the events. I would have expected UAC to ask and then allow events]

Brett

[Melloware]

I was able to get EG events from an MCE remote in Win7 by turning off UAC. Obviously that's not a good long term answer. If you find a better way, please let me know. I'll post back here if I find anything else that works.

[edit: I was surprised to not see any events, but also not see any indication of UAC stopping the events. I would have expected UAC to ask and then allow events]

Brett

thanks for that tidbit....I will let you know if I find a better solution! This sounds like a bug in Windows 7 if you ask me...

[el_zoido]

Hi y'all!

I've spent a good portion of my last weekend trying to solve the problem of getting EG to recognize button pushes from my Vista compatible Philips MCE Remote (RC1974603/00 remote + OVU411000/00 IR Receiver) in Windows 7 RC 64bit. Here goes my story:

- Installation of W7 64bit RC went like a charm.

- I plugged in the remote into a free USB port and it was automatically installed as "ehome Infrared Tranceiver" in both the USB subtree and the HID subtree (in the Device Manager). At that point, the remote was functional, meaning that when the green windows button was pushed, the Windows Media Center (WMC) would be launched.

- I went through all the tricks to disable WMC, including disabling a number of services (Windows Media Center Extender Service, Windows Media Center Receiver Service, Windows Media Center Scheduler Service and Windows Media Center Service Launcher). At that point, only the Mute button was functional on the remote.

- I went on to install EG (EventGhost 0.3.7.r1076) and add the MCE Remote to the Configuration Tree. The box "Disable HID service for this remote" was checked and I restarted the computer hoping that EG would recognize my remote.

- After a restart, nothing happened, EG was launched in administrator mode but it didn't see any events from the remote. I tried to connect/disconnect the remote from the USB port a couple of times. EG registered that my HID-device (with a really long name) was added and removed so apparently EG was working as it should, which is more than you can say about my remote.

- I browsed the web for a number of solutions, including this thread. Not one of them was working. Now I had pretty much given up.

- The solution appeared after a restart which was not even related to EG. At that point I had only the remote connected to my USB ports, nothing else. All of a sudden, EG could recognize my remote. I was on cloud nine, thinking that my problems had magically been solved. Another restart later I was back on square one, with a non-functional remote. In pure desperation I quit EG and launched it again a couple of times. I don't remember if it was the fourth of fifth time I restarted EG when it suddenly recognized my remote. I restarted the computer yet another time, EG was dead silent. A number of restarts later it started to listen to my remote. I later found out that the number of occupied USB-ports had nothing to do with this problem since the remote was fully functional no matter how many things I had connected to my USB ports. I also discovered that it really did nothing to the functionality of EG if it was launched in default mode or in administrators mode.

So, what did I learn? Basically that there's either something that blocks EG from listening for the HID signals from the remote or that the MCE Remote plugin in EG is somewhat buggy.
My two cents are on the second suggestion since if there was a conflict between EG and some other HID-listening software, that conflict would manifest itself everytime I launched EG which was not the case.

If you have any questions I'll be happy answering them!

/El Zoido

[Angh]

Ive had pretty much the exact same experience only in Windows XP MCE 2005 using IR Server Suit.
All of a sudden it would work... then it wouldnt... then it works again...

So definetly something in the OS is blocking.

Id be very interested in hearing a solution to this one ;O)

[Melloware]

el_zoido, that is good stuff. I never had any problems in XP or Vista if you disabled the HID service and then removed the registry entries for the remote. This problem for me is totally new on Windows 7. If I take the same remote and plug it back into a Vista machine everything works as expected. So Microsoft has definitely changed something in the eHome Driver in Windows 7.

[stottle]

This was a known and understood problem. The driver for the IR receiver installed in a way that requires elevated privileges to connect, otherwise the connection fails. I think this is true of Vista and Win7, but not XP because XP doesn't have UAC. See this thread.

Also see this thread, including why MediaPortal uses a service to get the MCE IR events.

So if it works for you on Vista or Win7, you've either:
1) Run with Admin privileges and UAC turned off.
or
2) Set EG to "Run as Administrator"

Otherwise, I would guess that the MS driver/registry keys were reinstalled, and the OS was responding to events, not EG.

I've been testing an alternate approach (running a windows service to connect to the IR driver). If you want to give it a try, you can get that here.

Brett

[Melloware]

Stottle, thanks so much for clearing this up.

[stottle]

No problem. I don't think anyone wants it to be so difficult. I'm hoping the alternate service helps you out, too!

Brett

[Melloware]

No problem. I don't think anyone wants it to be so difficult. I'm hoping the alternate service helps you out, too!

Brett

For now I am having my Intelliremote users try out your suggestion of disabling UAC and Setting "Run As Administrator" on the shorcut to see if it works.

I am interested in seeing more about the Windows Service you are creating.

[stottle]

I am interested in seeing more about the Windows Service you are creating.

Maybe you didn't catch the link I posted a few threads back. I just uploaded the service for people to try out in this other thread. I thought you would be the most excited to try it.

Brett

[dpmanthei]

I deleted the registry entries and they flippin' come back! What's that about? I delete them, reboot, try MCE Remote, it "double clicks", I check the registry, and the entries have returned.

All I want is to kill Windows 7's actions so I can set my own with Event Ghost. Worked awesome in XP, but no dice in Windows 7.


HTPC
Dell GX280
Windows 7 32-bit
Boxee Beta (latest build)
Event Ghost
Windows MCE Remote

Thanks!
Dylan