Windows Vista Security: Praxisorientierte Sicherheit für Profis

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Chapter 25: Mastering Windows Media Center

within your profile, and any other folders monitored by Windows Media Center that

contain videos. The options allow you to manage your media by name or date.

Both the Picture Library and the Video Library make it easy to manage your collec-

tions. You can view your content by selecting the Folders option. To add picture or

video folders to monitor, click Tasks

➝ Settings ➝ Library Setup.

Working with Music

From the Music menu, you can play music saved to folders being monitored by Win-

dows Media Center, and access Internet radio stations. You must have a sound card

to play music. Additionally, you must have an Internet connection in order to use the

radio management functionality. Table 25-4 lists Windows Media Center music

functionality and requirements.

On the Music menu, you have a Play All option for playing all available music, as

well as Music Library, Radio, and Search options. If you select Music Library, you

will see a list of albums and other audio files that are available. As Figure 25-5 shows,

your music is organized in much the same way as it is in Windows Media Player.

You can play all your music, or select albums or individual songs to play. You can

also create playlists that work just like Windows Media Player playlists.

Using the Music Library option you can access music saved in the

Music folder within your profile, and any other folders monitored by

Windows Media Center that contain music. From the main menu,

click Tasks

➝ Settings ➝ Library Setup to specify additional music

folders that should be monitored.

The Music Library section lets you view your music library by the following categories:

• Albums

• Artists

• Genres

• Songs

• Playlists

• Composers

• Years

Table 25-4. Music and radio functionalities and requirements

Functionality Requirement

Listen to music Sound card

Download online updates to album information Internet connection

Listen to Internet radio Internet connection

Navigating Windows Media Center

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These categories make it very simple to find the music you want to play. You also have

the option to play all of the music in your library, by selecting the Play All button.

When you select an album within your music library, as shown in Figure 25-6, you

have the following options:

Play Album

Plays the selected album from the beginning.

Add to Queue

Adds the album to the active playlist where it is queued to play after any previ-

ously queued music.

Burn

Burns the album to an audio CD or a data CD/DVD. See “Burning Disks,” later

in this chapter, for more information.

Edit Info

Allows you to edit the album details downloaded from the Internet.

Delete

Permanently deletes the album from your computer.

Figure 25-5. Viewing your music

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Chapter 25: Mastering Windows Media Center

If you select the Radio option from the Music menu, you can manage the different

aspects of Internet radio, including adding new stations, managing how you sort

them, and listening to the different stations you add. Clicking the Sources selection

opens the Showcase menu. Selecting the Music and Radio option takes you to a

screen listing the preset options available to you—among them VH1 and XM satel-

lite radio. You must have Adobe Flash Player to view some content in the Showcase

menu subsection. You can either click the installation selection available on the

screen provided, or download Flash Player directly from the Adobe web site (http://

www.adobe.com).

You can select many different radio stations from any of these predefined selections.

You can choose by genre or specific radio station listed. Some of the different genres

available are jazz, Latin, metal, new age, oldies, pop, country, and blues. Each genre

has numerous sites to choose from, and offers endless hours of music entertainment.

If you select the Search option from the Music menu, you can search your music by

keyword to find a song, album, artist, and so on. As Figure 25-7 shows, matches for

text you enter are returned as you type, and you can click on a selection to view more

details. To go up to the next level of the menu system from a submenu, move the

pointer around the screen, and then click the Back button.

Figure 25-6. Selecting an album within your library