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

Exploring the Media Center Interface

The sole reason for the existence of the Media Center remote control, which was

developed jointly by Microsoft and Dutch electronics maker Philips, is to provide

you with easy, across-the-room access to the Media Center interface (see Figure 4.7).

Created as a sleek, highly visual “one-stop” destination for all your entertainment

activities, Media Center’s animated transitions and simple menu structure seem

vaguely familiar, yet totally unlike any Windows desktop scheme that has come

before it.

CHAPTER 4 NAVIGATING XP MEDIA CENTER’S “10-FOOT” INTERFACE

59

FIGURE 4.7

When you press

the green Start

button on the

remote control, it

will launch the

Media Center

interface; how-

ever, an inset

window (lower

left) always dis-

plays the current

media selection.

Switching from Media Center to the Windows XP Desktop

You can switch from the Media Center interface to the Microsoft Windows XP

desktop at any time. Simply press the green Start button on the remote control,

and then use the right-arrow key to select Minimize (see Figure 4.8), and press OK.

Media Center will continue to run in the background. You can also use your remote

control to maximize the Media Center screen, or to close the Media Center interface

altogether.

FIGURE 4.8

This close-up

shows the

onscreen buttons

in the upper-

right corner that

allow you to

maximize, mini-

mize, or close

the Media

Center interface

using your

remote control.

60

ABSOLUTE BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO WINDOWS XP MEDIA CENTER

Customizing Your “10-Foot” Look and Feel

One of the cool things you can do to really customize your Media Center experience

is add menu items. This allows you to select an application using the remote

control, and have the link to that application appear in the Media Center menu

stack right below the existing Media Center applications.

Adding Applications to the Start Menu

Here’s how to add items to the Media Center Start menu. Essentially, you’re going

to add a new application link to the Media Center Programs folder in the Windows

Start menu.

■ Create a shortcut to the desired application by placing the cursor over the

icon for the program you want to add, clicking the right mouse, and then

selecting Send To, Desktop (Create Shortcut).

■ Move or Copy the shortcut into the following folder: C:\Documents and

Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Accessories\Media Center\Media

Center Programs. (Instead of All Users in the pathname, you can specify a

particular user folder. In this way, different users will see different menu items

when they launch Media Center.)

■ When you launch Media Center, your new application link will appear in the

More Programs menu. When you select your application, the Media Center

user interface will be replaced by your application. The next time you launch

CHAPTER 4 NAVIGATING XP MEDIA CENTER’S “10-FOOT” INTERFACE

61

FIGURE 4.9

Following the

steps listed earlier,

a link called Paint

was created. A

graphics file called

mspaint.png—

a pair of green

handprints—was

placed in the

same directory.

When the Paint

item is selected,

the green hands

icon is displayed.

When you select

the Paint item, it

automatically

launches the MS

Paint drawing

program.

Media Center, the link will appear at the bottom of the main menu list,

before Settings. Make sure that the shortcut name is the same as the name of

the application, with no “shortcut_to_” prefix or filename extension.

If you want your custom menu to look really slick, you can add an associated icon.

It works like this: When you select an item from the Start menu item, an image (or

icon) appears at the upper right of the screen (see Figure 4.9). You can assign one of

your own images to any new menu item you add by doing the following:

■ Find or create a graphic image. It must be in Portable Network Graphics

(PNG) format, and it can’t exceed 300×300 pixels. (There are already

hundreds of PNG files on your system; you can run a search using

Windows Explorer.)

■ Give the file exactly the same name as the application you are launching

(with a PNG extension instead of an EXE extension, of course), and place it in

the same directory as that application—or “executable” file—on your hard

drive. For example, if you added a link for the mspaint.exe program to your

Media Center menu, you need to place a graphic file called mspaint.png

in the same directory as the .exe file (which happens to be C:\WINNT\

system32, in this case).