Mailbag: Can I anchor a custom strip on the Media Center start menu?

Question:

I would like to add a new strip to the Windows Vista Media Center start menu.  I have followed the instructions in your previous blog post and in the Windows Media Center SDK for Windows Vista, and the start menu strip is created as expected in my test scenarios.

However, the user is able to remove this strip by going to Settings | General | Program Library Options | Edit Start Menu and unchecking the application name.  In addition, once a user installs additional applications that also create start menu strips, the strip that I create will no longer appear on the start menu because it only shows the 2 most recently installed strips.

How can I author my Windows Vista Media Center start menu strip so that it will always appear on the start menu, regardless of what other applications the user installs on the system?

Answer:

There is not a way to force a custom strip to always appear on the Windows Vista Media Center start menu.  Users are always allowed to change/remove tiles and strips that are added by Media Center applications.  Only strips and tiles that are included as part of the standard Windows Media Center functionality on Windows Vista are "anchored" to the start menu so that they will always appear regardless of what additional application the user installs on the system.