HowdoIinstallMC

Installing MC!

How do I install MC?

Media Companion comes in a compressed Self-Extracting EXE file. Run the EXE and extract the entire archive to a folder which has user access rights, *eg c:\mediacompanion*
MC is a portable program & has no installer & does not use the registry to store data. It writes config files (the old fashioned way) in its own directories.

With the inclusion of x64 builds, usage between different computers will be limited to the operating system. EG: x64 build of Media Companion will only run on x64 versions of Windows. x86 build if Media Companion will still run on both 32bit and 64bit operating systems.

Do not use program files or User Folders, on Vista or above machines. Due to User Access Control (UAC) on these systems, it stops MC from writing configuration files to these folders. desktop, documents or User folders are not recommended!

In addition your media files will need to be in a location also that MC can write to. e.g. c:\media\Movies** & c:\media\TV Shows**
Files can also be on a networked drive (NAS unit) as long as the user has the required rights to write files to that shared folder.

How do I update MC?

Since Media Companion Version 3.582, Media Companion has become portable. What does this mean?

Well, you can extract a new Media Companion and drop all the files over your existing version.

Or, you can just copy your Settings Folder from your old build, to the newly extracted build. Doing this method, please run Media Companion once, close, then re-open Media Companion so any config changes are updated to your settings folder.

The latter options is recommended, as you then have a backup version, in case you have issues with the new build.

How do I perform a complete fresh install

Here you have two options.

1. in Media Companion folder. Delete your Settings folder, Cache folder, and, if present, the missing folder. Note: make a copy of Genre.txt file (located in Settings folder) if you are using a custom Genre list.
2. Extract Media Companion into a new folder.

How do I clear the configuration without doing a complete fresh install?

Just delete the folder Settings under the folder you have Media Companion installed in. When you restart MC, it will recreate this folder with the default settings.