Just getting started with Windows 7 Media Center and not sure where to start? Well, you’ve already found Hack7MC which is a good start! Windows 7 Media Center is a popular solution for beginning home theater PC users due to it’s simplicity out of the box. This means that to get started you really only need the hardware and a version of Windows 7 that packs the Media Center software.

Straight away there’s no real need for in depth configuration beyond the basic startup wizard that takes you through the steps to locate your local media. From here you can begin playing your music, movies and TV from inside Media Center’s 10-foot interface.

Here at Hacking Windows 7 Media Center you’ll find a number of guides for beginners who are interested in getting started with the most basic features of the Windows 7 Media Center interface:

Begin playing your favorite music tracks right away with the Play Favorites feature. To tell Media Center just how you’d like it to choose your favorites, by rating, the play count or by how new they are to your collection follow this handy guide to Playing Music Favorites.

If you’ve got a TV tuner installed perhaps you’d prefer to get right down to exploring the live TV features of Windows Media Center. For most users Media Center gets it right but if you’re having trouble finding that channel you’re looking for check out our guide to setting up custom channel lineups. If it’s ClearQAM you’re interested in then have a look at the guide on manually adding ClearQAM channels to Windows 7 Media Center.

Next, schedule your recordings just like you would on your old cable DVR or Tivo. Save yourself some time, by setting up recordings based on specific keywords that will automatically record new programs by actor, title, director or any other keyword.

Should you run into trouble with your recordings we’ve got you covered as well. Check out these handy guides to tracking down tuner trouble and setting tuner priority per channel to get your recordings performing flawlessly. For even more guides for Windows 7 Media Center beginners you can find listings specifically tailored to beginners right here in the new skill level feature here on Hack7MC.

If you happen to be searching for more advanced guides we’ve got you covered there as well. You’ll notice that Hack7MC has added a feature to browse guides by skill levels including average, advanced and expert skill levels as well! Look for an ever expanding collection of guides filling up each of these sections in the future.

The best tip, of course, is to stay tuned to Hack7MC for future guides and articles on Windows 7 Media Center plugins and features via our RSS Feed or Email Updates!