Hi there,

First of all I would like to say that I'm completely new to the whole 'Media Center thing'. Started using it when I got a new Vista laptop and HDTV and connected them with an HDMI cable few months ago. Now I practically gained about 50 pounds if you understand what I mean :p
I say this so that you know what level of knowledge I got about the program in case you want to help solve problems.

Anyway.. I suddenly found a green button in the startbar saying 'Windows Media Center'. Upon opening I got this menu with online media and stuff.
Now that I want to start using Media Center to a more advanced level I realised some of my menu items are missing. I searched the forums before and found similar problems of people missing 'Sports' but I'm missing even more. When I looked around on the internet I came across the following items (that werent in my menu): TV, Sports, Spotlight and dozens of others which were probably manually added (like Windows Live).
I ordered a TVtuner recently that will be delivered soon but since I have no idea how to access the TV submenu I'm not sure I'll be able to use it in Media Center..

Also, since I live in the Netherlands, I only got (a short list of) Dutch online media services and no RADIO at all, but I would to have more. I know it has something to do with presets...

My concluding question is 'how to customize Media Center? 'I've also seen people with different layouts/background and whatever.
Also would like to add an embedded Internet Explorer. I found this 'plugin' called MCEbrowser but I have no idea how to add it.

I must say there are very few options available in the settings menu that can help me or any other beginner start. Google didn't help me either..
You guys just have to show me the path, I will try to find out how to walk it then :). Just need to know where to begin.

Using Vista Premium SP1
T7300, 2g RAM, and some more nonimportant stuff.

Thanks in advance

Ok if there's no one who can/wants to reply.. could you please redirect me somewhere else then please?

I was in the same situation a month or so ago. I would suggest simply reading the forums here and build up your knowledge base. Its a slow and sometimes frustrating process, but I think youll see a lot of your questions will be answered that way (and new ones developed:))

I'm pretty sure that, once you install a TV tuner and configure it in VMC, the "missing" menu items will become available.

here is a way to add new programs or parts of MCE to your MCE start menu

http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/thread/255723.aspx

here is the vista MCE 3rd party subforum where you can find great programs for MCE
http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/72/ShowForum.aspx

I, too, am new to Media Center. I have a really good new computer with an AverMedia PCIi card and want to get started with SD recordings on it. Hopefully someone can answer a question for me. I am stuck on one decision: do I run this thing off of my desktop computer, which I use pretty much at night (buy an XBox 360 to use in the den where our big TV is)...or buy a new computer to go in a closet adjacent to the TV in the den and leave the home office desktop alone.

One big question I have for people who really use their computers that are running VMC in the background: how much system performance drag do you see when VMC is churning away in the background? I don't do a lot of CAD work or anything, just mainly Firefox, Quicken, Word, etc.