Mailbag: How can I tell if I have Update Rollup 2 installed on my Media Center PC?

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Question:

I bought a computer from a system builder, and they told me that Update Rollup 2 for Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 is pre-installed on the computer. How can I tell for sure whether or not Update Rollup 2 really is installed on my computer?

Answer:

There are a few different ways to check whether or not Update Rollup 2 is installed on a computer.

The way that post-Update Rollup 2 hotfixes (such as KB914548) check for Update Rollup 2 in their setup logic is to check the following registry value:

  • Registry key name: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center
  • Registry value name: Ident
  • Registry value data type: REG_SZ
  • Registry value data: 4.0

If you do not feel comfortable checking in the registry, you can also check in Add/Remove Programs by using the following steps:

  1. Click on the Start menu, choose Run and type appwiz.cpl
  2. Check the box in the top middle of the Add/Remove Programs control panel labeled Show updates
  3. Scroll to the bottom of the list of installed applications and look for Update Rollup 2 for Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 in the section titled Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005

You can also check the version information listed in the Media Center UI. To do this, launch Media Center, then go to Settings | General | About Media Center | Software Version. If you have Update Rollup 2 installed, it should be listed here. In addition, the version number should begin with 5.1.2715. The base Update Rollup 2 version is 5.1.2715.2732, and the 4th version will be higher than 2732 if you have a post-Update Rollup 2 hotfix installed.

<update date="5/1/2006"> Added another version check suggested by Jason Tsang in the comments of this blog post </update>