Set one of these up, and you’d get a large-screen, remote-friendly system that let you watch all of your locally stored content right on your TV, without so much as a network streaming hiccup or buffering message. In fact, ExtremeTech ran fairly regular build-it stories and how-tos on setting up Windows Media Center PCs, including ones with beautiful, horizontal cases that would sit nicely in a stack of high-end stereo components. Often the best hope was to skip the set-top box (as they were known then, before today’s onslaught of Roku, Apple, and Amazon products), and simply build a PC dedicated to your living room HDTV running Windows Media Center. Most of them were pretty glitchy and difficult to use. Some were referred to as Windows Media Center Extenders, a Microsoft-invented mouthful of marbles that didn’t last very long in the market. In fact, in successive years, I spent a good amount of time reviewing various set top boxes, from companies like Buffalo, Hava, Hauppauge, and SageTV that let you stream movies, music, and photos from your PC to your living room television. And make no mistake: Windows Media Center was an innovative and necessary product. Windows Media Center debuted in 2002 as Windows XP Media Center Edition (MCE), saw a long succession of updates through Vista and Windows 7, and finally ended up as an add-on for Windows 8. What’s frustrating about this is that Windows Media Center was ahead of its time, and for a fairly large number of enthusiasts, an important piece of software that gave worth to Microsoft’s often dubious add-on packs and otherwise premium editions of its operating system. Microsoft has confirmed to ZDNet’s Ed Bott that Windows Media Center is officially dead, and will not make a return appearance in Windows 10. It’s been a long time since we heard any news from Microsoft regarding Windows Media Center, and now it seems the company is driving the final nail into the coffin.

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