Microsoft Confirms Windows 8 Will Come Bundled With Windows Media Center
No more confusion left! Microsoft has officially confirmed that Media Center will definitely be a part of Windows 8.
There were many rumors among people that Microsoft has removed Media Center from Windows 8 but it turns out to be false after Microsoft’s official post at Building Windows 8 blog.
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According to Steven Sinofsky:
I want to reassure customers that Media Center will definitely be part of Windows 8. No doubt about it. Knowing how strong the support for Media Center is among pre-release testers, we still have work to do to make sure the quality and compatibility with add-ins is what you would expect even in pre-release (as with any release of Windows, compatibility is a major effort and when we work on the underlying video engine, as one example, we have to make sure features that push these areas receive adequate coverage).
In the coming months, many folks will be testing pre-release builds of Windows 8. As everyone knows, two things are always the case early on. First, the software is not done and things will change – features will be added and removed. Second, the different editions or SKUs are not developed or announced until late in the development process (closer to market availability).
Media Center will not be part of the first pre-release builds. Some other features/capabilities will not be in the first pre-release builds including: Windows 7 games, DVD Creator, upgrade setup, Dot Net 3.5 (Note there are perhaps a couple of other relatively low profile items but just wanted to hit the major ones here). These are engineering decisions as well as business decisions.
As we get closer to market availability, we will make sure to explain how not just these specifically but all features of the product will be made available.
Interestingly, the feedback about Media Center was predominantly “we will pay extra, just include it” based on the input directly to me. Today Media Center is part of “premium” SKUs for Windows, which means that is the case today.
In addition a lot of folks said “everyone I know uses it.” As I said, we’re completely committed to delivering Media Center in Windows 8, but I wanted to share some of the usage data. This data in no way influenced not delivering it as part of the first pre-release build – we are as committed as ever to Media Center.
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Microsoft is really making everyone excited about Windows 8…
instead of windows media center, MS just should include XBMC 11 (Eden) which is far better than WMC and open source this will save them lot of work in developing windows 8.. lol.
trac.xbmc.org/roadmap
I never use it in windows 7, windows media player and vlc are all that I need
yeah me also just use windows media player for audio and media player classic for video files…..
Why doesn’t Microsoft replace Windows Media Center, with the Zune player?
Why doesn’t Microsoft replace Windows Media Center, with the Zune player?
All those windows default functions are worthless for me, like all those media features, search feature, defender/firewall/update are totally worthless for me…that’s why i’ve disabled all of these features and functions, i’m not gonna even install service pack.
When i installed clean w7 i didn’t install a single windows update and now my laptop works so so much better, those worthless updates ruines computers.
Forgot to mention that i use iTunes instead because there’s the best EQ ever made.
In my experience, WMC has always been the best piece of integrated software to come with Windows. It would be plain stupid if they axed it for this edition of Windows. VLC is a good substitute but it has shortcomings when compared to WMC. It doesn’t always pick up subtitles by default like WMC does and it’s menus may be a little cofusing for a novice user. Windows Media Player is okay for videos as well, but it can act up and crash from time to time and the picture quality seems to be slightly poorer than on WMC. Again, this is just my experience, but WMC seems to be a leader, or at least near the top, in video management and playback. I couldn’t tell you about anything else though, I’ve only used it as a DVD player.
Despite, most hates on WMC, I like it… It works best when I GlovePIE a Wii Remote…
Windows Media Center > Hulu plugin and Netflix, love love love.
I dont use WMC and WMP cause to me they are like crap likely. Worst about WMC is, it can’t even passthrough precious audio like Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio to the A/V amplifier. And even better (sarcastically), they even removed Dolby Digital support (maybe) from Windows 8. VLC is the best for passing through all this audio to the amplifier cause it also has a option (i think so).
Windows 8 to me is,
“Rewinding Back To Windows 3.0 Pre-Release Builds Where They Had Legacy Compatibility” I mean, it doesn’t sound exciting, even the ribbon. I only will use the traditional UI and use all my good stuff rather than using pre-installed stuff. Wonder what rubbish will laptop companies put in the OS.
Regards,
Lester
helo sir…………….jst wanna knw dat vat shud i do in case if there r multiple booting options comin ven m startin m system……IE ……….i had done multiple booting bt nw formatted the first window bt still the option appears so kindly help m…….
^^ You can remove those options using boot tab in msconfig. Type msconfig in RUN and press Enter.