Microsoft may have dropped support for Windows Media Center on Windows 10, but the deprecated media hub still has its fans after all these years. Although it may not be useful to many, the Windows Media Center SDK for Windows 7 has been
published on GitHub this week (via
The Register).
The SDK was uploaded by Charlie Owen, a former Program Manager at Microsoft who worked on Windows Media Center from 2004 to 2009. On the GitHub page, Owen said that sharing the SDK would help “preserving a bit of history for the diaspora that created Windows Media Center (the ‘eHome’ team at Microsoft) since the actual installer has gone missing from the original download link.”
With Windows Media Center, Microsoft attempted to create an all-in-one solution for media consumption with support for TV tuners and DVR functionality, but low usage led the Redmond giant to stop all development following the release of Windows 7. Windows Media Center was still available as a paid add-on on Windows 8/8.1, but it’s no longer officially supported on Windows 10.
There are a couple of solid alternatives to Windows Media Center these days such as
Kodi or
Plex, but some adventurous developers have also created custom versions of Windows Media Center that still work on Windows 10. However, the best way to keep using Microsoft’s Home theater PC software in 2019 is probably to do so on a Windows 7 or 8.1 PC.
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