Microsoft discontinues Windows Media Center

Written by Matti Robinson @ 03 May 2015 9:11 User comments (1)

Microsoft has been unveiling more about its upcoming operating system this past week at Build conference in San Francisco. The company also told to ZDNet that it will be killing off the Windows Media Center.

Windows Media Center was released in 2001 as a full screen media experience for Windows XP. The development halted already in 2009 but the software has been included to this day in Windows 8. Now it seems however that the interface will not be seen on Windows 10.

The software was meant for media consumption of music, video, photos, and TV. It was designed to be intuitive with a remove controller, often provided with the Windows Media Center PCs. Even if the software will not make a return in Windows 10 the functionality largely will surely be in place – if not by Microsoft, by 3rd party developers.

Tags: Microsoft Windows Media Center Windows 8 Windows 10

<Microsoft says 3.7 million users have signed up to test Windows 10 >Windows Phone fans rejoice: Two high-end devices are coming this year

1 user comment

14.5.2015 00:45

audvare

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Newbie

This could have been a cool product, widely used by novices and advanced users, but XBMC/Kodi, MythTV and others outdid it easily by supporting all the formats, whereas Microsoft only wanted to support theirs and very few others. Have to remember it was not until Vista that Windows came with a DVD decoder.

3rd party software also is just as intuitive to use as this, if not more.

Xbox 360's interface is sort of a revamping of this, but the only reason people use it there is because they have no choice. Microsoft gave explicit permission to Netflix and others to exist there (they did not have to but they knew they would lose a lot of customers on this). In the end, Microsoft never turned MSN Music (among other services offered) into something comparable to iTunes or Netflix. Both users and the industry failed to embrace VC-1 like Microsoft wanted. There are so many factors, so it comes as no surprise that WMC is killed.

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Microsoft discontinues Windows Media Center

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