Several weeks ago a few of us were helping out some friends in MCML creation and realized the Media Center Markup Language Preview Tool wasn't exactly optimized for testing with web applications (i.e., any time you need to type http:// for a URI). It also has a few shortcomings in the history department (ummmmmm, there isn't one). So a few of us got together and created a powertoy (i.e., not an official part of the SDK and not supported by Microsoft --read the EULA for details) which greatly enhances use of the Media Center Markup Language Preview Tool as a standalone application. It provides a handy dandy graphical user interface which...

• Allows you to browse to / type / copy / paste / edit a URI and launch MCMLPad with command line switches.
• Maintain a history of all URIs opened using the launcher.
• Automatically save the history when the tool is closed and restore the next time you launch the tool.
• Double-click any item in the history to launch MCMLPad with the item selected (and bubble it up to the top of your history).
• Drag and Drop files from Windows Explorer to add items to your history.
• Save a history to share with others or create resource groups for various projects.
• Open histories you have saved or received from others. Included with the tool is a history for the MCMLSampler (MCMLPadAuto.Sampler.xml).
• Clear the history.

The Media Center Markup Language Preview Tool Launcher Powertoy is available for download from...

This application is now included in the Windows Media Center SDK available from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=a43ea0b7-b85f-4612-aa08-3bf128c5873e&displaylang=en.

Once installed, this powertoy resides in \Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows Media Center\v5.0\Tools\ (unless you change the path) with a shortcut on the Windows Start Menu in the Microsoft Windows Media Center SDK folder. You can copy the executable anywhere you wish on the machine and run. It will create history and settings XML in the same folder as long as it has RW permissions.