Microsoft who are struggling in the search, smartphone and browser markets have now confirmed that there will be no Windows Media Centre capability built into their new Windows 10.
This is the Company that five years ago was preaching that
their Windows Media Centre was the future for home entertainment. Several
custom installers in Australia even developed home servers and home automation
systems running WMC.
Launched in 2002 at CES, Bill Gates at the time predicted
that WMC was set to be the “next big thing” in home entertainment
Now the Company who is also struggling to deliver a tablet
and smartphone version of their new OS in time for the July launch has said
that Windows Media Centre will not form part of the upcoming release of Windows
10.
Microsoft has said that they have no intentions of bringing
the software over into its latest operating system, meaning that users who have
it running on Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 will no longer be able to access it if
they decide to accept the company’s offer of a free upgrade to Windows 10.
An executive advised several attendees about the move in a
private meeting during this week’s Build developer conference.
Users installing the Windows 10 upgrade will be informed
that they will have to uninstall the app for “compatibility” reasons,
and will not be able to get it back once it has been installed, forcing users
of the software to avoid the upgrade.
Microsoft officially broke up the Media Centre team in 2009
after finishing its development in Windows 7. It was updated in order to work
with Windows 8 and Windows 8.1, but only to make it compatible, not adding any
new features to the software at all.
