Media Center Audio with Remote Desktop Control
I realize this is not at all the most complex post but I have been amazed on how many times people are unaware of how to pull this off.
Here is the scenario - You have some people over and you want to just hook up your laptop to your Microsoft Media Center as you are all in a different room from your TV. (You get the point - TV is in the living room and your in the kitchen or bar)
Problem becomes that every time you log into your Media Center it does two things.
* Logs you off of the Media Center and your TV now goes to a login screen.
* Pulls your audio from your house and now forces playback on your laptop or tablet.
Fix:
Log onto your Media Center by entering the following into RUN mstsc /console This will open a remote desktop window and allow you to connect right to the console (note: Vista knows what you are doing and will not allow Media Center to run in this way - it will require a registry edit and I will cover this at a later time)
Before you enter the name of the computer change the following:
1) Go under Options
2) Local Resources
3) Select “leave at remote computer” for the Remote Computer Sound option
Just like that you are now using your Laptop or other PC for a big remote.