XBMC run at startup and menu setup?

Soldato
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Can someone explain how to get a Windows XBMC install to boot at startup?

Also, what's the best skin around and how does one setup menus such as:

Movies
Tv Series
Music
Pictures

etc...

Thanks!
 
I'm not sure what you mean by XBMC install to boot at startup? Do you mean you want the program to start running as the o/s loads??

There are a few skins that separate Movies and TV shows although i don't really like the styles and that of them. If you're good with XML you can edit or make your own skins.
 
You can either install xbmc standalone, which comes packaged with a distro of linux which means it will boot to xbmc.

Or you can simple jsut put a shortcut to xbmc in your start > all programs > startup folder.

The default skin is actually very good, which I use.

You set up the Movies / TV series by first setting up your library. You need to tell xbmc where to look for your tv series / movies and then to assign a "scraper" to that folder so it can automatically download the episode descriptions / images.

Hope that helps!
 
Or you can simple jsut put a shortcut to xbmc in your start > all programs > startup folder.

rarely works btw, as xbmc boots before other processes so ends up minimised, you will have to look at a more dedi program to do it, or create some sort of bat file for boot?

as for skin Aeon MQ2 by far is the best on xbmc at the moment.

if you have an android or apple phone make sure you download the remote aswell - makes life a lot easier
 
I'm not sure what you mean by XBMC install to boot at startup? Do you mean you want the program to start running as the o/s loads??

Nah, he just wants the tsr to load then do nothing ;).

Obviously for someone just wanting a media centre, having it boot straight into xbmc is quite handy.

Op as hutchy says, install the standalone.
 
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I run XBMC as the shell, instead of explorer.exe. That way it boots at login, and explorer doesn't.

TV shows and movie catagories are added when you add a source directory/network share to the video catagory and set the content as TV shows or Movies.

Make sure your files and directory have some sort of structure. Showname/Season/1x23 - Episode name.ext works well for TV. For movies, or the "movie name (year)" for the file or name or folder name works good.
 
Alaska is great, not as computer intensive as aeon, but still looks great. EVH has a great guide on xbmc/ plex but I'm on my iPad so can't get you a link!
 
I have XBMC live installed on to a 4gb USB stick which I connect up before booting my PC. This boots directly into XBMC instead of windows :) When I finished I remove the stick and the PC then boots into windows off the main HDD

BTW the best Skin is Night but with modded page backgrounds (OSX desktop look-a-like)
 
As for the skin I would recommend Alaska Revisited, it's probably the best skin for my purposes anyway.

AEON (+ variations) are nice but are a bit too fancy IMO
 
I have XBMC live installed on to a 4gb USB stick which I connect up before booting my PC. This boots directly into XBMC instead of windows :) When I finished I remove the stick and the PC then boots into windows off the main HDD

BTW the best Skin is Night but with modded page backgrounds (OSX desktop look-a-like)

How quick is the boot time from USB?
 
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