Ed Bott's Media Central

Tim Coyle asks a good question:

What is the special hardware that the new power management scheme needs? Are we talking about updating the BIOS on an existing motherboard or is it more complex than that and you will essentially need a new PC to get ‘Away’ mode to work?

A short Knowledge Base article, Description of the new Away mode for Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005, has details on how Away mode works:

When your computer enters Away mode, the following actions occur:

• The display is turned off.
• The audio is muted.
• Input devices such as keyboards, mouse devices, and the remote control are filtered to make sure that errant keystrokes are not processed.
• Media playback is stopped, except for live TV.
• The CPU may enter a lower power performance state. This condition occurs if a lower power performance state is supported by the hardware.
• The graphics processor may enter a lower power performance state. This condition occurs if a lower power performance state is supported by the computer’s graphics hardware and drivers.

So far, so good. But then the article adds this baffling statement:

Note Away mode is not installed as part of Update Rollup 2 for Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005. Away mode is available only if the following conditions are true:

• The Away mode component was preinstalled by an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) or system builder.
• The Away mode component was preinstalled on a new Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005-based computer that supports Away mode technology.

That’s not what the Microsoft press release says. It’s also not what was implied in multiple posts from people on the Media Center team.

The implication of this Knowledge Base article is that support for Away mode can only be enabled on a new Media Center installation. That can’t be true. Or can it?