Windows Vista Media Center

You'll find no separate Media Center Edition of Windows Vista as there was with Windows XP. Instead, Vista comes with Media Center as part of its Home Premium and Ultimate editions. Here's a summary of the changes Microsoft has made to the Vista version of Media Center:

• Interface improvements Microsoft has tweaked the Media Center interface to make it easier to use. The top-level tasks (TV, Music, and so on) appear more like a list than menu choices, as they do in XP Media Center. When you select a top-level task, Vista Media Center bolds the task text and displays the available second-level tasks below. When you select a second-level task, Media Center displays a graphic along with the task text to illustrate the task's function. As the displayed tasks move away from the center of the screen (whether up or down, left or right), they become progressively lighter. This focuses the user's attention on the task at hand in the center of the screen.

• New menu structure The Vista Media Center comes with quite a few top-level tasks, including Pictures + Videos (work with your picture and video libraries), Movies (work with DVD movies), TV (work with your TV tuner), Music (work with music and radio), Spotlight (access media online and run other Media Center programs installed on your computer), Tools (access Media Center tools), and Tasks (run other Media Center features).

• Show notifications for incoming phone calls You can set up Media Center to display these notifications for all incoming calls or just for calls with Caller ID.

• Wireless networking You can now use the Media Center to join your computer to an existing wireless network.

• Parental controls You can set up parental controls to restrict the content that is viewed through Media Center.

• Program optimization Vista Media Center comes with an optimization feature that ensures maximum performance from your system. Optimization occurs automatically every morning at 4 a.m., but you can set your own schedule.