How in the Tech

Enabling the DVD Library in Vista Media Center

By Adam Myers ⋅ May 11, 2008 ⋅ Tags: Media Center, Multimedia

We’ve all spent a great deal of money fleshing out our DVD movie collection. To some, the addictive nature of collecting has left them with shelves upon shelves of DVD. With Media Center 2005 I could store all my DVDs on the hard drive of the media center and quickly find and play them through the My Videos interface – logical right? For reason Microsoft chose to change this behavior in Vista Media Center; they’ve removed, or should I say turned off, the DVD Gallery. Thankfully, it’s pretty simple to re-enable.

1. Exit Media Center if it is running
2. Click on the Start button and type regedit in the Search box. Execute regedit.exe in the Programs frame.
3. Locate the following registry key by navigating down the tree in Registry Editor:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Settings\DvdSettings

4. In the results pane, right-click ShowGallery, and then click Modify



5. In the Value data box, replace Play with Gallery.



6. Exit Registry Editor

Now, all of your DVD titles will appear in the Vista DVD Gallery providing an easy and eloquent access point.