Content area
Full Text
With the pending release of Microsoft Windows Vista, home integrators are starting to wonder what will become of Windows XP Media Center 2005, the almost-ubiquitous operating system for media PCs. The simple answer is that Vista will replace Windows Media Center Edition. All of MCE 2005's features are integrated into the various versions of Vista, but will Vista offer an improved experience for media PC users?
Microsoft recently released Release Candidate 1 (RC1) of Vista, and the CRN Test Center was able to put the Media Center functionality of the operating system through its paces. Vista will be available in several versions and SKUs. For this test, we focused on the Ultimate Edition, which will be released as the top-tier version of the product, but all versions of Vista will include Media Center functionality.
Test Center engineers found Vista to be a major improvement over MCE 2005 in every sense. Several hardware configurations were tested. Right off the bat, installers will notice the faster and simplified installation process. When the Test...