Game performance on Windows Media Center Edition

[Phayder]

I've been considering purchasing Media Center to use in conjunction with my XBOX360. However, I'm quite an avid gamer, and I want to clear up whether or not game performance is equal to that with Windows XP. Is the movie streaming etc worth it?

Also, are there any major problems with Media Center I should consider before purchasing it?

 

[Bruxbox]

Underneath Windows Media Center is Windows XP Pro, minus Domain networking.

So, if you want to play pc games, just shut down the Windows Media Center shell and you will get to the Windows XP desktop. After finishing gaming, restart WMCE. Real easy. Gaming performance does not suffer.

Now, if you have a dual core processor, then you can keep running WMCE and play games simultaneously, unless the pc game is multithreaded.

 

[loveamd]

How do you shut down the Windows Media Center Shell? And how do you turn it back on?

 

[Bruxbox]

How do you shut down the Windows Media Center Shell? And how do you turn it back on?

The Windows Media Center desktop has a big green button in the upper left hand corner. Click that big green button, and you will get a red button with an "i" encircled, plus the note "Shut Down" next to it.

Click the red button, and you will be presented with another series of buttons:

Red button with a white "x" - Close Media Center (this closes the WMCE shell and takes you to a regular Windws XP desktop)

Yellow Button with a white key - Log Off (typical Windows log off)

Red button with an "i" encircled - Shut Down (Shuts down OS like the normal Windows XP software shut down0

Green button - Restart (normal Windows restart)

Yellow button - Stand By (normal Windows stand by)

After you close the WMCE shell or desktop, you can restart it by clicking Quick Lauch button, a regular WMCE program item, or a desktop Icon.

The default settings with a WMCE installation is for WMCE automatically starts when Windows starts. You can disable this auto start, and you then get to a regular Windows XP desktop, in which you can manually start WMCE as you want it.

Also, even when you Close the WMCE desktop, all the scheduled TV recording will not be affected. TV recording will proceed in the background.

 

[loveamd]

Thanks BruxBox. A friend wanted me to come over to his house and see his new setup. This will give me something to show him. ( He once called and asked me how to empty the trash can on his desktop ) He will think I'm a freekin' genius.