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

change channels, adjust volume, pause, stop, record, rewind, and fast-forward.

However, there are a few other idiosyncrasies related to using your mouse in My TV

mode that can help you get the most out of your TV watching.

For starters, when you open My TV, it will typically be playing the currently selected

TV channel in a window embedded within the My TV main menu screen. To quickly

maximize the TV window to fill the screen, just place your cursor over the TV video

window and click your left or right mouse button. This little trick works with any min-

imized TV video window, including the Media Center start page, guide, and so on.

Although you can perform most of the same feats using your mouse that you can

with your remote control or keyboard, there are a few things you can’t do with a

simple mouse click, including these:

■ Skip or Replay—Only basic fast-forward and rewind are available when

you’re using the mouse only.

■ Live TV—You’ll have to fast-forward to reach the end of the recorded video

and see what’s happening “live.” You can click on fast-

forward (or rewind) up to three times to increase the speed.

■ More Info—This feature isn’t accessible

with the mouse.

Watching Out for the Kids:

Using Parental Controls

If you have children in your home or workplace—

wherever your Media Center PC resides—it’s a

good idea to think about using the parental con-

trols that Microsoft has placed at your disposal. It

might save you and the children that come in

contact with your PC a great deal of embarrass-

ment, or worse.

To set up parental controls, follow these steps:

1. Open the Media Center Start page.

2. Select Settings, and then General.

3. Scroll down to Parental Control, and

select it.

4. Enter a four-digit PIN (personal identifi-

cation number), and confirm it (see

Figure 6.5).

CHAPTER 6 WATCHING THE SHOW

89

No parental control

mechanism is foolproof.

Remember that the best

way to protect children

from inappropriate content

on TV or the Internet is to help them

become “street smart.” Tell them

what you think is inappropriate for

them, and make sure they know

that anytime they see or hear some-

thing that makes them feel uncom-

fortable, they should immediately

turn the machine off and/or tell a

trusted adult. (For more resources on

how to raise “street smart” kids in

the Internet Age, check out the

National Center for Missing and

Exploited Children (NCMEC) Web

site at

www.netsmartz.org.)

caution

5. Select TV Ratings and Movie/DVD Ratings to set values for each content

category.

6. Within each category, first place a check in the

top box to turn on blocking for that cate-

gory, and then place a check mark in the

other box if you want to block all unrated

content.

7. Finally, click on the – or + signs to view

information on various rating levels, and

select your choice for the maximum allowed

rating (see Figure 6.6).

After your parental control levels are set, you can

still watch shows that exceed the rating levels you

have selected, but you’ll first have to enter your

PIN code.

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ABSOLUTE BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO WINDOWS XP MEDIA CENTER

FIGURE 6.5

If you forget

your password

for Parental

Controls, you

can reset it using

the procedure

described in the

next section.

If you change channels

while watching a blocked

show, and then return to that

show, you’ll have to reenter your

password to unblock it again.

Resetting Parental Control Passwords

If you find that you can’t remember your four-digit

PIN for parental controls, you’ll need to perform a

reset of the code. First, you must be logged on to

your Media Center PC as the administrator. Then

you can follow these steps to reset the PIN:

1. Press Start on the remote, and then select

My TV.

2. Select Settings.

3. Hold down Ctrl+Alt while you select

Parental Control with the remote control.

Media Center will purge the existing 4-digit PIN.

Follow the onscreen directions to enter a new

parental control code.

CHAPTER 6 WATCHING THE SHOW

91

FIGURE 6.6

Using this screen,

you’ll be able to

choose from

seven levels of

content ratings.

If you haven’t considered

setting up different user

accounts on your Media Center

machine, now’s the time to start. If

everyone who uses your machine is

logging on as “administrator,” they

all have the authority to set and

reset passwords and PIN codes, and

so on. To add a new user account

to your system, launch Control

Panel from the Windows XP Start

menu and select User Accounts.

Click on Create a New Account,

and follow the onscreen

instructions.

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