DRM keeps poking up it’s ugly head, and it’s really beginning to irk me. I mainly use Windows Media Center to record HBO movies. I had about 9 or so recorded, and today I’m sick, so I thought it would be a perfect time to watch some of them, but what do you know, none of them work. I tried my main PC running Media Center, and the Media Center Extender in the front room. Both give an an error saying it’s protected content and won’t let me watch any of them!
I read about people running into issues after installing Update Rollup 2 for Media Center 2005, because Rollup 2 installs an updated Digital Rights Management (DRM) package. I’ve had the Rollup 2 installed for months with no problems, and now all of a sudden I’m getting this protected content crap!
I found this statement on Microsoft’s website. The Microsoft Windows Media Digital Rights Management (DRM) system may not work if you make changes to your computer hardware.
So basically if certain components are changed in your PC, like I changed out a hard drive, Windows Media DRM may not work because it views the change as an unauthorized attempt to move protected content to another computer. Crap like this makes me want to pirate everything, and not purchase anything legally anymore. I’m paying for HBO, and I can’t even record it! Ahhh.
So for the others who may run into this problem, here’s the fix, courtesy of Aaron Stebner. Be sure to back up any licenses to protected content first, and then perform the following steps:
- Close Media Center and Windows Media Player.
- Click Start, Run. In the Open box, type cmd and click OK to open a Command Prompt window. At the command prompt, enter the command net stop ehrecvr and press Enter.
- Click Start, Run. In the Open box, type %allusersprofile%\drm and Press Enter.
- In the Windows Explorer window for the DRM folder, choose Tools, Folder Options. Click the View tab and select the Show hidden files and folders option and then clear the Hide protected operating system files option. Click OK to close the Folder Options dialog box.
- Click in the Windows Explorer window for the DRM folder, press Ctrl+A to select all files, and press Delete.
- Optional: Reverse the settings in Step 4.
- Visit the following Web page: http://go.microsoft.com/FWLink?LinkID=34506 and click the button that allows you to upgrade Windows DRM components.
- Restart your computer.
- Optional: Restore any backed-up licenses.