Codename Windows Fiji is on par with Windows 7 and Windows 7 Server when it comes down to the details available from Microsoft. This because Windows Fiji falls under the category of products developed under the translucency policy set in place by Steven Sinofsky, Senior Vice President, Windows and Windows Live Engineering Group. However, crumbs from the Windows project do manage to find their way to the general public, and Windows Fiji is the latest product to become a little transparent. Windows Vista users, especially those running the Home Premium and Ultimate editions of the operating system, should get ready for Windows Vista Media Center Feature Pack 2008.

According to Geek's Anatomy, Windows Fiji is not the codename of the next version of Windows Media Center for the Home Premium and Ultimate SKUs, but the label of a Feature Pack, which, judging by the 2008 reference, will drop by the end of this year. Back in 2007, it was reported that Windows Fiji, at that time in planning stage, was Windows Media Center vNext, a standalone version of the solution, to integrate on top of what Vista Home Premium and Ultimate had already delivered.

In early May, Windows Fiji debuted into private Beta, and leaked screenshots of the testing build are available in this article. According to the information in the adjacent images, the new Windows Media Center version is 6.1.1000.18182 (longhorn_mc_dev_fb0(wmbla).080410-2208). Also, the license mentions Windows Vista Media Center Feature Pack 2008 and not Windows Fiji.

In this context, it is clear that Windows Fiji is merely something of a major update to the Windows Media Center version which ships as a default component of Windows Vista. The Beta build features a new Windows Media Center Update infrastructure, which comes to complement Windows Update. Support for DirecTV, an item already reported to be included in Windows Fiji, was confirmed in the private beta.