 Sometimes finding your favorite entertainment online can be a long and arduous task. Instead of wasting precious time searching, let Windows Media Center do the work for you. With Windows Media Center (included in Windows Vista Home Premium and Windows Vista Ultimate), you can access the latest online music, sports, and news from a single location on your computer. The best part is that you don't need to do anything to your computer to turn it into this practical and exciting entertainment center. Nearly everything explained in this article involves just clicking a few buttons—c'mon, you can do that! On This PageExplore more musicOnce you've opened Windows Media Center, scroll down to Music and click More Music on the vertical menu. On the vertical menu across the top, click Showcase. The Showcase section of More Music shows you everything that's available under More Music. News, music, sports, television—it's all shown here. If you're not sure what you want, this is a quick and easy way to see all your options. If you get lost while exploring your options, just click the Media Center button (aka the Green Button) at the top left to return to the main menu and start over.  The Showcase section of More Music displays music, television, news, and sports options. Listen to Internet radioInternet radio is one of the coolest aspects of Windows Media Center. When you listen to local AM or FM stations, you're typically limited to regional music and news. But with Internet radio—much like satellite radio—you can listen to music and news from all over the world. To get to online music, click Music + Radio in the menu across the top of the More Music screen. 
You can listen to thousands of Internet radio stations with Windows Media Center.
I'll show you how to access one of my favorites: Live365. Most of Live365's stations are free to listen to, and there are literally thousands of choices you can select from. Just follow these steps to access Live365.com: 1. | Click Live365.com under Music + Radio, and you'll be taken to the following screen where you can make your selections. 
From the Live365 home screen, you can navigate to thousands of Internet radio stations.
| 2. | Click Genres in the left toolbar. | 3. | Click the genre you want, such as Rock. Use the up and down arrows at the bottom right of your screen to see more selections. | 4. | When you find the station that you want, click the big Listen button. |
One of the additional benefits to Live365 is the ability to add radio stations to Windows Media Center's primary Music menu. As shown in the graphic above, there is a plus sign icon at the bottom left of the station's screen with Add to My Radio next to it. Click the icon, then click Add Link when the prompt appears. This automatically adds the radio station to the Radio section of the main Music menu in Windows Media Center. The next time you want to listen to that station, just click Music—>Radio and select the station that you want. Access online sports and newsIt's just as easy to access online sports and news. In More Music, click News + Sports in the vertical menu. You'll see sites for sports and news, such as Fox Sports or Reuters News. Just click the option that you want, and start listening to, watching, or reading sports and news reports. Depending on the station, you can get streaming video of these reports but if you have a TV tuner attached to your computer, you'll also be able to watch some items on your monitor just like you would watch them on television. For the most part, however, sports news options provided will be in written format like the one shown here. 
A sports story about the 2007 World Series.
There's more to Windows Media Center sports, however, than simple headlines and news stories. When you select Sports from the main Windows Media Center menu, there are several different sports items to choose from. | • | Scroll right to Scores. This option shows you all current scores and league standings. | | • | Scroll right to Players. This is where you can track your favorite and fantasy league players. | | • | Click On Now to see a sports television guide so you know which games are currently underway and what the scores are. (You need to have a TV tuner attached to your computer for this option.) | | • | Click On Later to see TV listings for future games. |
Additionally, if you're interested in topical news stories, go to Online Media on the Start screen. Click Explore, and then click News + Sports on the vertical menu. From there, you can access news sites such as National Public Radio (NPR), Reuters News, or MSN TV Today. You can get the latest news—MSNTV Today, for example, offers topics like business news. There's also a very cool new Windows Media Center option (currently in beta) that might interest news and sports fans, too: Internet TV. Go to TV + Movies and click Internet TV. From there, click News or Sports on the vertical menu and then click on a thumbnail to launch the related free, ad-supported TV content. More than 100 hours of television programming are currently available including episodes of the television series Arrested Development, music concerts and videos, news clips from MSNBC, and sports highlights from Fox Sports. In closing
If you haven't taken the time to explore Windows Media Center's online options, do it now. Whether you're a sports fan, music nut, or just want some quick news, you can get the information you want almost instantly. It's all built in to Windows Vista Home Premium or Windows Vista Ultimate, so why not take advantage of it?
 | S.E. Slack
S.E. Slack is a lifestyle and technology writer with more than 10 books to her credit. Her latest title is Windows Vista Home Entertainment with Windows Media Center and Xbox 360, which shows you how to transform one PC into the hub for entertainment throughout your entire home.
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