Absolute Beginner's Guide to Microsoft Windows® XP Media Center®

Special Media Center Downloads

Microsoft offers an intriguing array of downloads to enhance and enliven your

Media Center desktop. You can generally access these files by logging on to the

Media Center Download page at

www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/mediacenter/downloads,

as shown in Figure 24.3.

At the time of writing this chapter, the page included the following types of down-

load files:

■ Microsoft PowerToys

■ Previous versions

■ Skins

■ Songs

■ Screensavers

■ Desktop Images

In the next few pages, we’ll describe each of these downloadable options for your

Media Center machine in greater detail.

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ABSOLUTE BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO WINDOWS XP MEDIA CENTER

FIGURE 24.2

The Windows

Update Web site

will automati-

cally analyze

your system

software and

recommend

upgrades.

Microsoft PowerToys

Formally called Microsoft PowerToys for Windows

XP Media Center Edition 2004, the PowerToys

download consists of numerous software elements

designed to spruce up and spice up your Media

Center experience.

The PowerToys available for download at the

time Media Center Edition 2004 was introduced

in the fall of 2003 included the following:

■ Alarm Clock—Designed to work like an old-

fashioned clock radio, the Media Center

Alarm Clock PowerToy (shown in Figure

24.4) lets you choose a song and have

Media Center wake you up with it at the

time you designate. Of course, everything

can be configured using your Media

Center remote control. The file is only

1.18MB to download.

■ PlaylistEditor—The Playlist Editor program (see Figure 24.5) allows you to cre-

ate and edit music playlists via your Media Center remote control. You can

CHAPTER 24 DOWNLOADS AND ENHANCEMENTS

333

FIGURE 24.3

The Media

Center

Download page

provides numer-

ous add-ons to

customize and

update your

Media Center

experience.

Although Microsoft

maintains that the

PowerToys applications

are safe and sane add-

ons to your Media Center

desktop, the company does not

actually support the software con-

tained in the PowerToys downloads.

If they don’t work quite as adver-

tised, be prepared to uninstall them,

because Microsoft says it will not

answer questions or provide techni-

cal assistance with the programs.

caution

sort and add songs by various attributes, such

as album, artist, title, or genre. The download

file is 1.2MB.

■ Solitaire—The quintessential Windows time-

waster, Solitaire (see Figure 24.6), has been

adapted to run on your Media Center, via

remote control. The download file is

2.06MB.

Installing PowerToys

PowerToy programs, along with other third-party

applications designed to run in conjunction with

Windows XP Media Center Edition 2004, require

that you download and install the software from

the Windows XP desktop. If you click on the appro-

priate link on the Media Center Downloads Web

page (shown earlier in Figure 24.3) the process is

fairly simple:

1. Follow the link to find the file you want to

download, and then click on it.

2. A pop-up window will ask whether you

want to save the file to disk or

open it.

3. Select Open, and follow the onscreen prompts to install the software.

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ABSOLUTE BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO WINDOWS XP MEDIA CENTER

Before you can work

with audio files and

playlists from within Media Center,

you need to first load some music

files onto your system, and then

run Windows Media Player to add

the files to your Media Library. You

can also copy CDs directly into

Media Center using the My Music

interface, as described in the sec-

tion “Ripping a CD from the My

Music interface,” in Chapter 13,

“Preparing Your Music Collection

for XP Media Center.”

FIGURE 24.4

The Media

Center Alarm

Clock allows you

to configure

Media Center to

wake you up to

your favorite

audio selection.

To launch and use the programs after you have installed them, launch Media

Center and select More Programs from the main menu. You should see a list of pro-

grams that includes the one you just installed (see Figure 24.7) .

Previous Versions

The Previous Version Downloads section of the Web-based Media Center Download

pages includes various performance updates, patches, and bug fixes, along with util-

ities to enhance or expand the capabilities of your Media Center machine. Among

other things, you can download software that will provide support for additional

CHAPTER 24 DOWNLOADS AND ENHANCEMENTS

335

FIGURE 24.5

The Media

Center Playlist

Editor allows

you to sort and

choose songs,

and then save

sets of them as

preconfigured

playlists.

FIGURE 24.6

Nothing on My

TV? This clever

adaptation of

the classic card

game of one-

sided one-

upmanship can

keep you occu-

pied for hours.