Microsoft has upgraded XP MCE to a new version, Windows XP Media Center Edition 2004, an evolutionary upgrade that fixes major customer complaints, improves stability and performance, and adds numerous new features. XP MCE customers can upgrade to XP MCE 2004 cheaply, through their PC makers, but that doesn't help existing XP Home and Pro users, as there is still no upgrade path to XP MCE from those versions. You must still buy a Media Center PC if you want the new software.

Apparently, I'm not the only one who believes that Microsoft is wrong to limit the market for this type of software. Last month, Dell CEO Michael Dell revealed that his company would provide its Dimension desktop users (and some Inspiron notebook buyers) with new multimedia software, dubbed the Dell Media Experience, for free when they bought a new Dell PC. Though the preview was brief, Dell's Media Experience software appeared to be very similar to XP MCE. Had Dell partnered with Microsoft to finally deliver XP MCE to the masses? What was this new software, exactly?

At the XP MCE 2004 launch event in New York on September 30, 2003, I discovered the answer. It turns out Dell didn't partner with Microsoft, but the software it's delivering does bear a suspicious similarity and functionality to XP MCE. Here's what Dell is doing with its Media Experience software, and why it's going to be a viable alternative to XP MCE for many people.