Windows 10 is going to kill off Media Center, Microsoft confirms

Windows Media Center
Media Center's time has come.

It's been a long time coming, but it's a sad moment nevertheless: a Microsoft executive has confirmed that Media Center won't be available at all in Windows 10, finally killing off the software for good.

ZDNet has the scoop from inside this week's Build conference, but the writing was very definitely on the wall - the software suite was last given a major upgrade in 2009. A direct port was made available for Windows 8 for users who still wanted access to the functionality.

It's a sad end for an application that was once cutting edge - it brought music, movies, photos and live TV together in a '10-foot' interface that could be operated with a remote control from the sofa.

No Windows 10 support

Nowadays we have the likes of Plex, iTunes and even the Xbox to do the same job for us, so Media Center isn't as essential as it used to be. Around the time of the Windows 8 launch, Microsoft confirmed that not many people were still using it.

If you try and install the Windows 10 preview on a machine running Media Center, you'll be asked to uninstall the media suite first - and the same restrictions will apply once the new OS is released in full. If you want to keep Media Center, your only option is not to upgrade.

Are you still a keen Media Centre fan or have you never even heard of it? If you want to leave a eulogy to the software and your memories of its heyday, we'd welcome your comments below.

David Nield
Freelance Contributor

Dave is a freelance tech journalist who has been writing about gadgets, apps and the web for more than two decades. Based out of Stockport, England, on TechRadar you'll find him covering news, features and reviews, particularly for phones, tablets and wearables. Working to ensure our breaking news coverage is the best in the business over weekends, David also has bylines at Gizmodo, T3, PopSci and a few other places besides, as well as being many years editing the likes of PC Explorer and The Hardware Handbook.