Absolute Beginner's Guide to Microsoft Windows® XP Media Center®

Customizing Your 2-Foot Look and Feel

Clearly, one of the big payoffs for plugging in a Media PC is the capability to work

and watch TV—all on the same box, all at the same time. To achieve this marvel of

multimedia multitasking, simply start Media Center and select Restore Down (the

center icon in the upper right that looks like two windows, one on top of the other).

This places Media Center in a movable, resizable window.

Now all you have to do to multitask is start the program you want to use; for exam-

ple, surf the Web by using Internet Explorer, or check your email by using Outlook

Express. Resize the window of the program you are using so that you can see both it

and whatever you’re watching with Media Center.

Keeping Media Center “Always on Top”

Of course, as you begin multitasking in earnest, you’ll soon discover that other win-

dows keep covering up your video window. This may provide a temporary boon to

your productivity, but eventually, you’ll get pretty tired of constantly needing to

unbury your video. Here’s how to change your settings so that the active video win-

dow is always on top of the desktop heap:

1. Open up the Media Center Start menu.

2. Select Settings.

3. Select General.

4. Select Appearance.

5. Click to place a check mark in the box for Window Always on Top. (See

Figure 5.9. )

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ABSOLUTE BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO WINDOWS XP MEDIA CENTER

FIGURE 5.9

Changing this

setting to

Window Always

on Top ensures

that you’ll never

miss the big

scene or the big

play.

Capturing a New Background from Video

Now that you’ve got your 2-foot experience prac-

tically perfect, it’s time to add some finishing

touches and spruce the place up a bit. Here’s a

great way to do it, using your keyboard and

mouse, and the unique properties of Media

Center.

The next time you’re enjoying a TV show—or

video of any kind—on your Media Center, stay

on the lookout for an eye-catching scene that

would look good plastered all over your desktop.

Then follow these steps:

1. Use your rewind control to get back to the

perfect spot on the video screen, and press

Pause to keep it right there.

2. If the video is not already being displayed in full–screen mode, select the inset

window and press OK to make it full-screen.

3. Press the Print Screen key on your keyboard.

4. Open your Paint program. (You can launch it from the Windows XP desktop

by clicking on Start, All Programs, Accessories, Paint.)

5. Press Ctrl+V, or select Edit, Paste.

6. Select File and Save As Background (Centered). (See Figure 5.10).

CHAPTER 5 NAVIGATING XP MEDIA CENTER’S “2-FOOT” INTERFACE

77

tip

To find the perfect shot in

your video, you can rewind

or fast-forward to the

approximate spot, then view

it frame by frame. First pause

the video, then press the

Skip Forward button to

view the next frame, or Skip Back

for the previous frame.

FIGURE 5.10

The Paint appli-

cation allows

you to save any

image as a back-

ground for your

Windows XP

desktop.

THE ABSOLUTE MINIMUM

Your Media Center PC is a “split personality” machine: It was designed for use in

remote-control mode (the “10-foot experience”) and mouse-and-keyboard mode (the

“2-foot experience”). In this chapter, we discussed getting around in—and getting

the most out of—that 2-foot, face-to-face experience with your Media Center

machine. These were some of the key points:

■ The 2-foot interface was designed to allow you to experience all the entertain-

ment features of the Media Center, while simultaneously making use of the

powerful computing capabilities of your Media PC.

■ The Media Center interface can sense when you want to use the mouse, and

automatically places various mouse-operated media controls at your dis-

posal.

■ Although your Media Center keyboard may have come with several hard-

wired buttons that resemble the transport controls on your Media Center

remote, they mostly won’t work with Media Center’s video and DVD features.

For more control over your Media PC, you’ll find a slew of keyboard shortcuts

that can streamline your media experience.

■ You can improve your multitasking experience by changing the Media Center

settings so that your video window is never covered up by other applications,

and you can customize your PC’s look and feel by plucking a scene from any

video and turning it into wallpaper for your desktop.

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ABSOLUTE BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO WINDOWS XP MEDIA CENTER