Pairing Windows Media Center with the Win 10 Tech Preview? You’ll miss out on updates

By Konrad Krawczyk October 13, 2014

windows 10 will officially kill off media center — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Are you using the recently released Windows 10 Technical Preview? Do you miss using the Media Center? If so, you might want to hold off on installing it, since doing so will prevent you from getting more OS updates.

A Windows 10 Technical Preview user noted that, after adding a product key for the Windows 8 Media Center Park to his Win 10 Tech Preview installation, the operating system starting calling itself “Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center.” On top of that, the OS also told him/her that it wasn’t an activated version of Windows.

Microsoft’s official response to the matter reveals that this is just the tip of the iceberg.

“We do not recommend adding Media Center to Windows 10 Technical Preview as using a purchased product key will also prevent you from getting updates and future builds for Windows 10 Technical Preview,” Winston M, a Microsoft Support Engineer, says in response.

The engineer goes on to recommend that the user performs an “in-place upgrade” by downloading the original ISO file, and reinstalling the Windows 10 Technical Preview.

Microsoft has cautioned that the Windows 10 Technical Preview is an early version of the OS. Users should expect to run into bugs, quirks, and other odd occurrences. That’s part of the reason why Microsoft included the ability to easily provide user feedback via the Windows Feedback app in the Win 10 preview.

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Konrad Krawczyk

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Konrad covers desktops, laptops, tablets, sports tech and subjects in between for Digital Trends. Prior to joining DT, he…

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