Customizing Your 2- Foot Look and Feel Clearly, one of the big payoffs for plugging in a Media PC is the capability to work and watch TVall on the same box, all at the same time. To achieve this marvel of multimedia multitasking, simply start Media Center and select Restore Down (the center icon in the upper right that looks like two windows , one on top of the other). This places Media Center in a movable, resizable window. Now all you have to do to multitask is start the program you want to use; for example, surf the Web by using Internet Explorer, or check your email by using Outlook Express. Resize the window of the program you are using so that you can see both it and whatever you're watching with Media Center. Keeping Media Center "Always on Top" Of course, as you begin multitasking in earnest, you'll soon discover that other windows keep covering up your video window. This may provide a temporary boon to your productivity, but eventually, you'll get pretty tired of constantly needing to unbury your video. Here's how to change your settings so that the active video window is always on top of the desktop heap: -
Open up the Media Center Start menu. -
Select Settings. -
Select General. -
Select Appearance. -
Click to place a check mark in the box for Window Always on Top. (See Figure 5.9.) Figure 5.9. Changing this setting to Window Always on Top ensures that you'll never miss the big scene or the big play. Capturing a New Background from Video Now that you've got your 2-foot experience practically perfect, it's time to add some finishing touches and spruce the place up a bit. Here's a great way to do it, using your keyboard and mouse, and the unique properties of Media Center. tip | To find the perfect shot in your video, you can rewind or fast-forward to the approximate spot, then view it frame by frame. First pause the video, then press the Skip Forward button to view the next frame, or Skip Back for the previous frame. | The next time you're enjoying a TV showor video of any kindon your Media Center, stay on the lookout for an eye-catching scene that would look good plastered all over your desktop. Then follow these steps: -
Use your rewind control to get back to the perfect spot on the video screen, and press Pause to keep it right there. -
If the video is not already being displayed in fullscreen mode, select the inset window and press OK to make it full-screen. -
Press the Print Screen key on your keyboard. -
Open your Paint program. (You can launch it from the Windows XP desktop by clicking on Start, All Programs, Accessories, Paint.) -
Press Ctrl+V, or select Edit, Paste. -
Select File and Save As Background (Centered). (See Figure 5.10). Figure 5.10. The Paint application allows you to save any image as a background for your Windows XP desktop. The Absolute Minimum Your Media Center PC is a "split personality" machine: It was designed for use in remote-control mode (the "10-foot experience") and mouse-and-keyboard mode (the "2-foot experience"). In this chapter, we discussed getting around inand getting the most out ofthat 2-foot, face-to-face experience with your Media Center machine. These were some of the key points: -
The 2-foot interface was designed to allow you to experience all the entertainment features of the Media Center, while simultaneously making use of the powerful computing capabilities of your Media PC. -
The Media Center interface can sense when you want to use the mouse, and automatically places various mouse-operated media controls at your disposal. -
Although your Media Center keyboard may have come with several hard-wired buttons that resemble the transport controls on your Media Center remote, they mostly won't work with Media Center's video and DVD features. For more control over your Media PC, you'll find a slew of keyboard shortcuts that can streamline your media experience. -
You can improve your multitasking experience by changing the Media Center settings so that your video window is never covered up by other applications, and you can customize your PC's look and feel by plucking a scene from any video and turning it into wallpaper for your desktop. | |