Are you tired of the default dark blue background in Windows Media Center? If so, you are not alone. This hack describes how you can customize and personalize your background graphics.
This is the boring background in Windows Media Center:
Here is what I have after replacing the background:
Let’s change it:
Requirement: Your picture must be in PNG format.
1. Back up the file to a safe place first before we continue tweaking. Go to C:\Windows\ehome, copy the ehres.dll file and paste it a safe folder. If there is something wrong, we can just paste it back to the original folder, and everything will be fine.
2. Download and install PE Explorer.
3. Launch PE Explorer. Hit the folder icon to open a file.
4. In the Open window, go to C:\Windows\ehome, choose Files of type: Library Files, choose ehres.dll and hit Open.
5. When the file is loaded, hit this icon.
6. Expand RCdata, right click on COMMON.ANIMATED.BACKGROUND.PNG and choose Edit Resource.
7. Hit the folder icon or press Ctrl+O to open a file.
8. Point the window to your image and hit Open.
9. Back to the PE Exlorer window, hit OK. When a new window pops up, click Yes.
10. Hit the Save icon to save the DLL file.
11. Click the Windows Orb, type cmd in the search box and hold Ctrl+Shift+Enter.
12. Now, we have to take the ownership of the DLL file. Type: Takeown /f C:\Windows\ehome\ehres.dll and hit Enter.
13. Next, type: Cacls C:\Windows\ehome\ehres.dll /G sicaism:F and hit Enter (replace sicaism with your username). Type Y and hit Enter again when it asks “Are you sure“. The whole process will look like below.
14. Copy the ehres.DLL file that was saved by PE Exlorer. Go to C:\Windows\ehome\ and paste it there (Copy and Replace).
15. Close all remaining windows.
16. Launch Windows Media Center to see the change.
