Media centre guide gone

Where has the Windows Media Centre TV guide gone?

It seems to have ended on December 31st on both my XP and Vista machines.

Maybe it used the Mayan calendar

Or maybe it isnt supported any more? I havent used it for many a year now. What do Microsoft say?

No issues on my Win7 machine...

could be a fault, just hope it comes back, but it wouldnt surprise me if support was ended silently. Microsoft now seem to be trying to preempting EOL on OS's older than windows 8 to try and get people to move, eg. they stopped gadget downloads on windows 7.

They stopped gadgets for a very good reason though. Firstly, hardly anyone used them. Secondly, there were some security risks with them.

It ended across the board. If you check you will find out the licence from the suppliers for it expired on 31.12.12. Whether this is an oversight by MS or the suppliers or a deliberate act on the part of either is unknown and MS are not responding to the huge number of complaints about this at the present time. You should get some guide info that is sent over the air on Freeview minus the HD channels, which seem to show now and next only at random, but any Freesat info isn't available. Check here for a workaround for Freesat. You could use Guidetool to assign Freesat guide info (where available) to Freeview channels that have none.

Check to see if you have the 2 weeks info, which you would have had until the clock started counting down to midnight on 31.12.12. You won't! All you will have is the one week OTA info broadcast on Freeview.

Time to upgrade to Windows 7.

No need. There's nothing it offers in media centre terms and it wouldn't have made a jot of difference if they had. All versions of WMC (XP, Vista, 7 and 8) were affected. It seems MS have responded to the howls of criticism today and have got the guide updating again. Best guess from users is that the MS and BSS/Red Bee monkeys were still on their xmas breaks and for the second time in as many years sort of forgot to update the licences that expire at the end of the year on the dot.

Edited by Desmond (Thu 03-Jan-13 23:25:57)

El Reg begs to differ, but what do they know?

Well I can assure you that when I did a manual update of the guide listings tonight it updated terrestrial and Astra/Freesat/Sky and my guide is now valid through to 12.00 on 18/01/2013, which is as it should be.

Not for the first time El Reg are a little out of date.

Edited by Desmond (Thu 03-Jan-13 23:24:12)

Other users on MS's support site for EPG issues are now starting to confirm they are getting updated guides too.

yes I dont like the new line of thinking at microsoft they essentially stripping functions that are not used by enough people, becoming a dumbed down OS model.

There was no security risks with microsoft supplied gadgets that werent patched.

Good to see Microsoft address this little glitch so quickly.

I see Microsoft disabled gadgets due to ongoing security risks Link

Many other companies could learn a lot from the way that Microsoft responds to bugs and potential security problems.

if microsoft acted that way to every security bug there would be no OS, they supposed to patch security issues not remove the features instead, that decision was too much of a coincidence with windows 8 release schedule.

It's not always possible to patch over a security hole. Sometimes the best answer is just to not allow certain things to be done.

Personally I've never had a need for gadgets as they seem little more than gimmicks. I'm sure that if Microsoft wanted to kill Windows 7 (and previous versions) they could find more efficient methods than blocking a little-used feature.

nice link from batboy, lot of common sense replies on it.

AEP you have misunderstood whats happening.

Basically the gadget system is still in windows vista and 7. It has not been removed.

What microsoft have done is removed the function where people can get gagdets that have been vetted by microsoft as clean, so now people have to ge tthem from untrusted sources.

You also have to understand any software someone download's can potentially be a trojan this is not something limited to gadgets.

Finally understand microsoft's recent history isnt pretty they fast getting a reputation for dropping support on things they bring out ot market in favour of newer things.

Personally I dont use gadgets however I can see why people do as it allows for things to be on display side next to running apps.

You see been able to see on screen all the time the status of something as a gimmick?

In reply to a post by AEP:

Many other companies could learn a lot from the way that Microsoft responds to bugs and potential security problems.

What sit in a darkened room and go "la la la" we're not listening until the pressure is too much for them.

MS has definately lost it's way in recent years and as said before this is not an ioslated case.

I remember one Xmas where Xbox live was unusable due to the many new users logging on and MS "solution" was to do nothing until everybody went back to work.

Executive Summary

Microsoft is announcing the availability of an automated Microsoft Fix it solution that disables the Windows Sidebar and Gadgets on supported editions of Windows Vista and Windows 7. Disabling the Windows Sidebar and Gadgets can help protect customers from vulnerabilities that involve the execution of arbitrary code by the Windows Sidebar when running insecure Gadgets. In addition, Gadgets installed from untrusted sources can harm your computer and can access your computer's files, show you objectionable content, or change their behavior at any time.

thats not a windows update.

when are they going to release a fixit to block downloading/installing of apps? as that can exploit a machine as well.

Sure looks like an update. The customer has to choose to download and install apps and there's a simple fix for that.