14 DAY TRIAL // Windows 7 General Availability will in just a few days be only two months away and Microsoft is laboring to catalyze the adaptation of the ecosystem of hardware and software solutions orbiting Windows to the latest iteration of the platform. In this regard, the Redmond-based company has supplied developers with the RTM bits of Windows 7 via MSDN, but has also offered the developer resources necessary to tailor apps to the operating system.
But the Microsoft Windows SDK for Windows 7 and .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 is not the only software development kit for Windows 7. At the end of the past week, the Windows Media Center Software Development Kit for Windows 7 went live on the Microsoft Download Center.
“This release includes documentation, tools, sample code. The Windows Media Center SDK is designed to help developers create applications and software components that take advantage of features provided by Windows Media Center, and documents programming technologies that you can use to extend the capabilities of Windows Media Center,” Microsoft stated.
This is in fact version 6 of the Windows Media Center SDK, which is designed especially for Windows 7 RTM. Basically, developers will only be able to leverage the SDK in order to build applications taking advantage of the Windows 7-specific Media Center application programming interfaces. Windows Media Center SDK v6 limits application support to Windows 7 and the OS’ specific API set, without providing developers with a seamless backporting process that would make their programs play nice with Windows Vista.
Unlike Vista, there are three main editions of Windows 7 that feature Windows Media Center. Because Windows 7 SKUs are superseding one another, Home Premium, Business and Ultimate (Enterprise for business users) will all feature Windows Media Center. In Vista, the software giant only offered Windows Media Center with the Home Premium and Ultimate editions of the operating system.
Windows Media Center Software Development Kit (SDK) 6 for Windows 7 RTM is available for download here.