Windows 10 to Media Center: nope

It’s curtains for Windows Media Center.

According to a report today in ZDNet, Microsoft will not be making Media Center available in any form in the upcoming Windows 10. In fact, it has been deemed incompatible with the new operating system.

Although Microsoft stopped updating the venerable Media Center software in 2009, it has been available most recently in Windows 8.1 Pro via an add-on Pack. It was included in Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional, and Ultimate editions, and in Vista Home Premium and Ultimate editions.

First released in a special Windows XP version in the early part of this century, Media Center’s functions included file media player, broadcast TV recording and playback, DVD playback control, CD playback, photo display, media sharing, and controlling the channels for TV watching through an attached TV tuner card.

For a while, it became the software centerpiece of a vision where a Windows PC acted as a controller for a variety of media types in a living room. But that scenario never caught on. Eventually, Microsoft’s TV-oriented attention centered around its Xbox video game console, leaving Media Center for a dwindling group of fans.

Those diehards can still run it from Windows 7 and 8.1 Pro, however. Microsoft has pledged to support those OSs through 2020 and 2023, respectively.