I would like to see on the Start Menu a way to login into a particular account. For example, maybe I want to sign into my kid's account where only a few menu items are available. Where the Media Center Screen can't be minimized to reveal the desktop and where they only have read access and cannot delete or record anything. And where they will only be able to see their music, shows and movies.

I would like to see these accounts as cutomizable but yet there could be a few default
accounts to make it easier for the non-power users.

In all seriousness, for my family, it doesn't feel like a typical Microsoft product. My wife says that the fact that she can use the media center keyboard we have and navigate very quickly to what she wants and doesn't have to feel stupid fumbling around for what she wants to get to. One slight complaint for both of us is the ability to create our own bars to put content we want right in one strip. Silly, but hey, you asked!

Aaaaaannnnnnnyyyyyything to keep her happy, keep it comin' kids!

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Out! ~Scary Aaron

Support 'Cancer Patients Bill of Rights'
www.seventyk.org
"I'm a survivor! I believe in these rights!"

ScaryAaron: I left a comment on your Zune blog post which should address your slight complaint. :-)

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Charlie Owen
Program Manager
Microsoft Corporation
http://blog.retrosight.com

I recall the first time I installed Vista - disastrously as it turned out! At the same time there was none other than Bill Gates on TV telling me that they had thought so long and hard about the new Start menu. Among other things they had finally got rid of the nonsense of the menu that you used to shut the machine down being called 'Start' by the high tech option of not naming it 'Start' in the first place. Clearly, a bobble in the same place was the ultimate GUI technology to MS!!!

Moments later - my Vista install finished - I moved the cursor to the bottom left corner to have the word 'Start' appear as I hovered over it.

There's no nonsense like MS nonsense.

I would not have ever thought of calling VMC's main menu the START menu, just the top or main menu.  Must be Microsoft internal lingo. Or else there is some other menu I have not seen.

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Deane G Vista SP1 Home Premium 32 w/Pack, 2x A180, 550 Pro, HD4350 at 1080i to plasma, Intel D945GNTLR w/Pentium D 2.80GHz, 2GB, Seagate 300MB + Hitachi 1TB, Linksys DMA2100, Harmony 550, TMT

Hey, thanks Charlie. I'll give that a shot this weekend.

I really think it's time I sat down and started learning how to code like that. This stuffs just too cool.

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Out! ~Scary Aaron

Support 'Cancer Patients Bill of Rights'
www.seventyk.org
"I'm a survivor! I believe in these rights!"

Overall I like it.

I whish i could disable some of the things I never use... so they don't show up and clutter the menu. (Sports, Internet TV, etc)

I wish the Recorded TV section had more sort options. Like sort by Original Air date. MythTV does it and I liked that feature.

+1 :)

ryan.tollefson:

Dislikes

• Pictures and videos lumped together
• That we can't get rid of unnecessary/unwanted icons

I think all of my requests have been mentioned several dozen times in this thread but i'm going to state them anyway, in vague order of priority.

* Ability to select which folders are watched for different content types (especially removing album art from pictures)

* Customisation / disable unused items

* Separation of videos and pictures

* Skinning and font selection (particularly w.r.t. the guide, i'd love to see more channels at once)

* Parental controls (personally i dont need this but it's staggering to me that youve left them out)

 

* More focus on the currently playing media while in menus.  The guide is the best so far as you can see the picture behind it, but even on my 50" plasma the stamp view is TINY and almost useless.

* Seperation of video and pictures as above.  They are often unrelated media.

* Perhaps an option for a 'box' layout where each item is a box on the screen, helpful to find things when your not sure.  That or a 'flat' view where you can see all items in the menu up and down at a time.