And currently, it's tightly tied to hardware, too. Technically, the OS augmentations include just a set of application controls and interface elements built on the core of Windows XP Professional, with simpler navigation conventions and-more important-the potential for your PC to use networking features such as Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) to distribute music and video to other systems in your home and to handheld devices.Īs first-generation software, MCE delivers about what you'd expect: it adds no new capabilities to Windows, just a different way of accessing the old ones. In practice, Media Center Edition (MCE) lets you use an infrared remote control to play TV, music, DVDs, and photo slide shows on your PC. You'll love Media Center if you need one of these new all-in-one PCs for your tiny dorm room, say, but Microsoft needs to work out a few rough edges before this edition is good for everyone. This new build of Windows XP Professional, which delivers remote-controlled audio, video, live TV, and the ability to record live TV to the PC, can be found only preinstalled on select PCs-at least, for the moment. I take no responsibility.Unless you're planning to spring for a whole PC, don't start jonesing for Windows Media Center Edition (better known by its former code name, Freestyle). If the above article is valid, make first a disk image of your system drive to avoid having to reinstall Windows if things go 'Boom!'. I have no idea how legal this operation is, but I suspect not very much. You can also google for 'XP to MCE conversion torrent', but you might end up installing a virus.

If your PC didn't come with it from a place like Dell you can't normally upgrade to it.īut if you like living dangerously, see Convert XP To MCE 2005 :

Media Center is only available as an OEM (original equipment manufacturer) install.

Buy windows media center for xp