Working from home can make you fall into the trap of working 24/7, which can ultimately reduce your productivity along with the quality of your life. Just as Windows® 7 Professional can make you more efficient during your working hours, the system also provides a number of features that can enhance your recreational time. Following are just a few examples:
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Turn your PC into a digital video recorder. Windows 7 Professional comes with Windows Media Center, with which you can watch, pause and rewind live TV programs without expensive hardware or a monthly fee—all you need is cable service and a TV tuner (which normally cost less than $100). Windows Media Center helps you schedule recordings of TV shows and movies, just like a digital video recorder (DVR). "No one in my family can watch TV without using Windows Media Center," says IT blogger Ben Drawbaugh.
What Drawbaugh likes in particular is that Windows Media Center can act as a multi-room DVR, "meaning that you have the exact same content in every room of the house," he says. "You can watch any live show you want, and if you start watching a recorded show in one room, you can easily finish in another without having to try and remember where you left off. You can also easily take your content with you on a laptop or even stream it over the internet to another Windows 7-based PC."
- Follow your teams. With Windows Media Center, you can track how your favorite sports teams are doing, providing scores or news items straight from Fox Sports.
- See a flick. NetFlix members can watch movies instantly in Windows Media Center, easily scrolling through the movies on your instant queue.
- Get a guide. The Windows Media Center free online programming guide makes it a snap to find what you want to watch and schedule recordings.
- Roll with your music. If your creative juices flow best when accompanied by a beat, Windows Media Center play Internet radio or music, along with your own music collection.
- Pretty as a picture. Windows 7 helps you personalize your background image or turn it into a slideshow. Windows 7 themes also have a medley of background images, screen saver, border colors and sound choices that you can use to customize your PC.
- Share with the family. For many work-at-homers, there isn't always a clear break between their work and home lives—and their PCs should do double-duty as well. Using HomeGroup, you can connect multiple PCs running Windows 7, and automatically share your music, pictures, videos and document libraries with other people in your home.
