Well, the Media Center browser is coming aloing very nicely. I worked almost my whole three-day weekend on it, with the exception of some stain-prep work on the step stool.

A couple of things I learned:

1. Microsoft’s MSI tools in Visual Studio 2003 suck rocks. (What does the ‘M’ in ‘MSI’ stand for?) They work pretty good for the basic stuff, but if you try and do anything beyond copying files and modifying registry entries you have to resort to using WScript or a .NET binary. This can be a major PITA when trying to debug a problem. Their tools also do not allow you to set some simple settings, like the default installation scope (All Users vs. Just Me). To change this setting, you have to compile the MSI and then edit it with Orca. I guess I should finally get around to installing VS2005 (still in the shrink wrap). Maybe the tools are better in there, but I am not getting my hopes up.

2. You can’t test an MCE plugin by using only IE. I did most of my development on my Windows 2003 Server using Internet Explorer. When I finally plugged it into the Media Center, I found some serious problems with my code. It would be nice if there was some kind of an emulation environment that I could do my development in. It wouldn’t even have to support tuners and stuff, just the MCE shell and the remote control. My wife did not appreciate my living room base camp/table/chair setup in the living room this weekend. I ended up writing my own remote control emulator to send the appropriate key codes to IE.

3. UI is important. It makes a huge difference in perception with people if the UI looks nice. I would probably even say that if I had a choice between adding new functionality and enhancing the user experience, I would choose enhancing the user experience. A friend of mine who is a graphic designer is currently working on the logo for MCEBrowser.

4. Sometimes you just gotta reduce scope. There were three features that I removed from this version of the product. I’m not going to say what they were, but I really wanted them to be included. They were just sucking up too much time, and I was going to have to delay my launch date to fit them in. Besides, once the product gets out to the public, maybe other features will prove to be more important in their minds.

There’s tons more, but those are the top ones…

The MCEBrowser is currently being alpha tested by myself and a friend. I hope to solicit beta testers this weekend and go beta early next week. Current schedule:

Alpha Testing - 01/16/2006 - 01/20/2006
Beta Testing - 01/23/2006 - 01/27/2006
Version 1.0 Launch - 01/30/2006