Vista - XBOX360 & Media Center w/ web browser

[mholtum]

Hey guys, here is something wicked cool.. I recently setup my sons XBOX360 as a media extender and then turned his XBOX into a web browser. Yes, you can browse the web via your xbox360.

STEP BY STEP (http://www.gamersreports.com/news/1293/browse-the-internet-on-your-xbox360/)

NOTE: You NEED WindowsXP Media Center Edition or Vista, it will not work with Windows 2000 or any other form of Windows XP

1) Go to http://www.anpark.com/software.aspx
2) Click on "Download Now (591 Kb)"
3) Double click on MCEBrowserSetup.msi and just click next
4) Start your Xbox360 and go into Media Center
5) Go into "More Programs" and choose the "Browser" Entry.
6) Add Favorites to your 360 from your PC, by going into:

C:, then "Documents and Settings" folder, then the "MCX#" folder

(# is a number, it depends on how many times you did manually
reconnect the 360 to the PC , so it changes for everyone....
The highest number is the latest, so choose that folder)

Go into the Subfolder called "Favorites" and either add links
by drag'n'drop from Internet Explorers Address Bar to it, or
right click and choose "Create Shortcut", enter the URL, click
next, and now Enter the Name of the Website (This will be how it
appears on the 360)

7) Choose One of your "Favorites" on the 360 and enjoy!

Please note, while you are able to browse the Web, do not mistake this add-on to MCE or a full fledged Web browser. It is using the MCE PC to render an image of the Website which it displays on the 360, but you will not be able to enter any text. (For Example, google wouldn't be useful because you cannot enter text.) However you are able to follow links. No, the USB Keyboard does not work with this as of yet. This also means the likelyhood of getting a virus on your Xbox360 is next to nothing. The browser is basically showing you an image of a browser running on your PC, so if your PC is protected, your Xbox360 is. The only way to exploit the Xbox360 would be with an image library exploit, we think.

Pretty neat stuff!

[Shyguy]

although this has been around for a while (we ordered my brothers Laptop over a year & half ago & I selected XP MCE for just this reason since my bro has an Xbox 360), from reading it, it sounds pretty useless for web browsing/searching... more or less lets you only view things & thats about it? does it let you go from page to page or select hotlinks on pages? for example if I set it to go to XPC's main site, would I be able to "click" the link to the forums & read the latest posts? or would that be possible?

with the lack of ability to type text, sounds like it more or less defeats one of the main purposes/uses of a capability like this, going to sites like Youtube & others & search for videos, now you would have to select from the lists of videos on main page & couldn't actually manually search for anything?

by any chance would the 360's Messenger Keypad add on allow one to actually type in info? I know it mentions the USB keyboard function, but what of the Messenging pad thing?

[mholtum]

You can type text.

My son has that little messenger pad that connects to the controller, works perfectly.

You can scroll through the links on a page and then click the one you want. Granted, it is not a computer, but it does score a 8 for the "cool" factor.

[Shyguy]

hmmm, might have to try it out when I get the old 360 fixed (replace DVD drive)...

since I run XP MCE already set on everything except need 360 controller & the messenger thing then. (well that & a HDD for the 360... unless I can get one of the SATA interface devices to plug into & use a shared drive on one of the PC's)