Windows Media Center SDK

Windows Media Center SDK is Microsoft’s Software Development Kit for creating Windows Media Center services and applications. The projects are based on and use the .NET Framework assembly, which is, naturally, the platform that Windows Media Center itself relies on.
The Media Center application was first included in the Windows XP home edition and became a built-in feature of latter operating systems such as Windows Vista, 7 and 8 Pro (as an add-on). Over time, it became popular enough to get developers started on programming enhancements and extra services that would lure users into trying it out.
Windows Media Center SDK can be used in the development of three types of applications: WMC Presentation Layer (users have access to the same rendering algorithm used in WMC itself), XAML Browser (applications are rendered via the vector-based Windows Presentation Foundation component) and Hosted HTML (for displaying web pages and web apps).
Of all the three aforementioned types of programs, most developers rely on the first one, since it’s the simplest and most reliable approach for the following reasons: the Presentation Layer of WMC features dynamic layout abilities and support for integrated animations, as well as rich graphics support and automatic keyboard navigation. What’s more, applications developed using the Presentation Layer run flawlessly on the Media Center for Xbox 360.
In conclusion, this software development kit provides a comfortable programming environment for developers who wish to produce software or services that can run inside Windows Media Center or on Xbox 360. The Net Framework is the platform that basically runs the show, so advanced development skills in this area are highly required.