Security Settings for Windows Media Center Applications
Windows Media Center includes a page called Program Library Options that lets the user place restrictions on Windows Media Center applications for reasons of security and privacy. These settings determine whether Windows Media Center applications are allowed to control Windows Media Center and retrieve its settings, and whether applications can retrieve Windows Media Center metadata.
Windows Media Center application developers should be aware of these settings and design applications to handle them appropriately. For a hosted HTML application, this typically involves querying the MediaCenter.MediaCenterControlLevel property to determine whether any restrictions are in place that limit the application's ability to function. If so, the application should display a message that explains the situation to the user.
To determine the current control level when using managed code, monitor the following exceptions that are thrown when you try to use an API, which indicate a restriction:
- ApplicationAccessDisabledException
- ApplicationControlDisabledException
- MetadataAccessDisabledException
- StateDetectionDisabledException
Placing restrictions on HTML applications has other consequences as well. For example, if the user prevents HTML applications from controlling and accessing Windows Media Center, the user will be unable to use the remote control or the keyboard to move the focus to the shared view port.
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