http://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/archive/2005/09/30/475925.aspxI got a comment from a customer asking about the availability of some Windows features such as Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player on a Windows XP Media Center 2005 computer that they purchased from an OEM. This comment made me realize that iten-USCommunityServer 2.1 SP1 (Build: 61025.2)http://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/archive/2005/09/30/475925.aspx#475996Sat, 01 Oct 2005 12:17:07 GMT91d46819-8472-40ad-a661-2c78acb4018c:475996Jason Tsang [MVP]Hi Aaron... <br> <br>Is there any reason why the 'My Photos' component of MCE can't be hidden via SPAD (i.e. via a Media Center Photos option)? Did that simply get missed? or is there more of a back story behind that? <br> <br>Thankshttp://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/archive/2005/09/30/475925.aspx#476710Tue, 04 Oct 2005 07:47:07 GMT91d46819-8472-40ad-a661-2c78acb4018c:476710astebnerHi Jason - that is a good question. This decision regarding photos and SPAD predates my time on the Media Center team, so I am not 100% sure of the reasoning. I asked around a bit and nobody was sure either. It is likely that we decided to do this because the SPAD infrastructure in the OS itself does not have a specific category for picture file viewers and that picture viewers are not considered middleware like web browsers, email clients, etc. Also, there is not any special logic that needs to be applied when displaying pictures, whereas there are digital rights management issues for other media types. <br> <br>