14 DAY TRIAL // In mid April 2007, Microsoft opened up the registration process for beta testers for Windows Fiji, the upcoming version of Windows Media Center. And with Fiji cooking in the Microsoft laboratories, the Redmond Company has started tending to the existing releases of Windows Media Center. In this regard, at the beginning of May, Windows Media Center Software Development Kit 5.0 was made available for download.
The SDK for Windows Media Center is designed to streamline the creation of applications and services that will build upon the content, features and capabilities of the existing product. In this regard, the Software Development Kit brings to the table a complete collection of documentation, tools and sample code that will serve in the development process for Windows Media Center.
Just last week Microsoft has updated Windows Media Center Software Development Kit. Version 5.1 of the SDK is now up for grabs from Microsoft, following the mandatory Windows Genuine Advantage validation. Weighing in at just 28.8 MB, the SDK should not present any problems.
Windows Media Center Presentation Layer Application (Local, Background and Web), Hosted .NET Framework 3.0 eXtensible Application Markup Language Browser Application (XBAP) and Hosted HTML are the Windows Media Center for which the SDK will offer "documentation, tools, sample code and Visual Studio 2005 project templates", according to Microsoft. Windows Vista Home Premium and Windows Vista Ultimate Edition are the operating systems supported with this release of the SDK.
Although Microsoft is dogfooding the next release of Windows media Center, code-named Windows Fiji, the Redmond Company is not breathing a single word about the future plans or a possible release date. At this point speculations have pointed out that Windows Fiji will be an out of band release that could be made available toward the end of 2007. Microsoft has however, failed to confirm this information.
Windows Media Center SDK 5.1 was tested by Softpedia as being 100% Clean and is available for download here.