XP is Microsoft's first attempt to truly integrate multimedia hardware and graphics-playing abilities. In previous versions of Windows, things such as movie making, music recording, CD burning, and graphics seemed an afterthought rather than a core part of the operating system.
But with XP, that changed. It's not only that Microsoft dressed up the operating system to make it look better; it also now offers Windows Media Player, a fully featured piece of music and entertainment software, and Windows Movie Maker, which lets you create home movies and videos.
In this chapter, you'll find hacks for improving your created movies, burning CDs more easily, converting graphics among formats, music sharing without spyware, and more.