What is Windows XP Media Center Edition?

A. Microsoft has added a new member to the XP family, XP Media Center Edition (formally known as Freestyle). Unlike XP Home Edition and XP Professional Edition, you can't purchase XP Media Center Edition--the new version of XP is available only with "Media Center" PCs (Hewlett-Packard has released one already; for details, visit the company's Web site ). XP Media Center Edition provides television viewing and recording capabilities, DVD playback, and DVD recording (DVD recording lets you play back your recordings on only the machine you used to make the recording). A remote control is also supplied to provide full control over the simplified interface.

For screen shots and more information about XP Media Center Edition, visit Microsoft's Web site. For an interview with Joe Belfiore, general manager of user experience at Microsoft's Windows eHome division, who helped guide the development of XP Media Center Edition, visit Paul Thurrott's Windows Supersite.