Controlling Media Center with Your Mouse

Maybe it's just a mouse to you, but to your Windows XP Media Center Edition machine, it's actually a "human interface device." Of course, one of the first things you'll want to do with your human interface device is start interfacing with your Media Center's audio and video content.

Launching Media Center

Unlike with your remote control, there is no single dedicated mouse button designed to launch Media Center (XP will create one after you use Media Center, however, as shown in Figure 5.2). So if you're ready to boot up Media Center for the first time using your mouse instead of your remote control, here's how:

1. Click on Start.

2. Click on the green Media Center logo.

Figure 5.2. Launching Media Center from the Startup menu gets easier, because Windows XP automatically puts shortcuts to recently used applications right in the start menu.

If you don't find Media Center already listed in your Start menu, use this procedure:

1. Click Start.

2. Click All Programs.

3. Select Accessories.

4. Click on the Media Center folder.

5. Click Media Center.

The Menu Bar

At the top of your Media Center interface screen, you'll now see the menu bar and its six control options (some of these are shown in the close-up in Figure 5.3). From left to right, you'll find the following:

• The green Media Center Start button . It takes you back to the main Media Center interface from wherever you may have wandered within Media Center.

• The green Back arrow button . It returns you to the screen you were viewing immediately before the one you are viewing now.

• The blue Help button . This opens a Media Center Help window to find answers to common questions.

• Minimize . A Windows standby, it will reduce your Media Center session to an icon on the taskbar. Although this gets Media Center out of your way in a hurry, your Media Center session remains active. Thus, if you are playing a show or a tune, you'll continue to hear it on your speakers after you minimize Media Center.

• Restore . This switches Media Center into "Windowed mode," meaning that it shrinks Media Center down from full-screen view to a smaller window, allowing you to access your other desktop applications while continuing to enjoy your Media Center content in a compact size. It also automatically places a resize handle in the lower-right corner of the Media Center screen (see the close-up in Figure 5.4). You can drag that handle to make the Media Center screen as large or as small as you like. When you want to return Media Center to its full-screen appearance, just click on the Restore button again.

  Figure 5.4. This detail of the lower-right corner of the Media Center screen running in Windowed mode shows the series of 10 small dots that denote a resize handle.

  

• Close . This shuts down Media Center completelybut don't worry, it will continue recording any scheduled shows in the background. (You need not be present to win!) For more information on recording TV, turn to the Chapter 7 section called "Using the Program Guide."

Figure 5.3. The Media Center menu bar gives you six shortcuts, including the green Media Center button shown in this detail of the upper-left corner of the Media Center screen.

Notice that when you resize the Media Center window, it retains its original dimensions. You can make it bigger or smaller, but you can't stretch it into a different shape. In techie terms, we say that it maintains a "constant aspect ratio."

The Transport Control Bar

The other toolbar that appears when you move your mouse within the Media Center interface is the Transport Controls toolbar (see Figure 5.5) that stretches along the bottom of the Media Center window.

Figure 5.5. The Transport Controls toolbar (shown here in detail) will disappear after a few seconds of inactivity, or if you use your remote control or keyboard.

The Transport Controls work just like they do on the remote control (see the "Power and Transport" subsection of the "Getting to Know the Media Center Remote Control" section, in Chapter 4). To the far left are the Ch+ and Ch buttons to change channels. Moving to the right, you'll find the Play, Stop, Record, Skip Back, Skip Forward, Mute, Vol+ and Vol buttons .