MediaDirect button assignment

I think it should launch your default music player, but I am not sure. I would check and make sure that iTunes is your default media player.

Message Edited by dorvega on 10-11-2006 06:55 PM

it doesn't works on my laptop (Inspiron 6400). When Windows is running, i can't run Dell Media Direct, but i can run it ONLY when OS is shut down.
Why?

After some lengthy searching and fooling around, I finally stumbled over a program called RegMon, wich helped me determine what registry entry was being used to start the Media Direct application.

Since I want the button to start winamp instead, I tried replacing the program link in the registry key to match my winamp location.. and it worked! ^^

So here's how you do:

Open up the Run program from Start > Run.

Type regedit in the field and klick OK.

A program named Registry Editor should pop up.

The registry tree works just like your regular file system, so browse your way through to:

My Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Dell\Media Direct

In that directory there should be a key named PathName, type REG_SZ, with the location of the MediaDirect program as data.

Double-click on PathName and a window pops up. Replace the MediaDirect path with whatever program you wish to start with the button, and click OK.

Now that program should start when you press the MediaDirect button instead.

Personally I picked Winamp, since with the Global Keys I could assign the play/pause, stop and change tracks buttons. Works like a charm and I don't have to bother with that Media Direct software. :)

an easier (and safer) way to do it is after installing Media Experience (let us assume it is in the folder c:\program files\dell\media experience and that we want to run winamp using the MediaDirect button) go to the folder and delete everything inside leaving an empty folder. Next thing to do is copy everything from INSIDE (without the folder) the winamp folder to c:\program files\dell\media experience (or install into that path). When all that is done change the executable file name (in this case winamp.exe) into DMX.exe.

Because when pressing the MediaDirect button the system looks for DMX.exe (this file name is in Media Experience, if someone was provided with a different software check the name of the executable file of the program), it will always run the file specified no matter how many times me change the program in the dell\media experience folder as long as the file name is changed.

It may be easier, but I wouldn't call it safer. Deleting installed content manually that has hardware connections can cause trouble to windows stability. Even though I highly doubt it would in this case, I wouldn't recomend manually removing program (or especially system) files to make changes. Also, some programs might not work when you rename the executable (winamp does, but one might want to run some other program with the same button).

What my method does is changes what program is run, but doesn't interfere with the any of the MediaDirect functionality that might be used by other programs or hardware. Not that I recomend fiddling around in the windows registry either, but as long as you don't go randomly changing/removing keys or registry entries, you'll be fine.

Anyway, pick either way you want. It's your computer after all. ^^

You are absolutely right evr. I forgot to add in my message that after installing the Media Direct software nothing was present in the registry (apart from uninstall info and previously opened applications and that would be it). I think that the media direct button assignment is somewhere in QuickSet but I couldn't find it.

Also deleting manually is a big mistake because a lot of files go to windows folder and subfolders (system32 etc) but when deleting manually one can always re-install media direct to the same folder and then delete it by add/remove programs in control panel.

Anyway thank you for your quick reply and later on I'll try to provide more practical and safer solutions :)

Oh. I actually never concidered the possibility that even though the registry information was labled under MediaDirect, it could be some other pre-installed software that has added it. After all, my configuration is pretty much factory default, so it might be QuickSet or any other program that's responsible for the actual registry entry. :)