After discovering that my computer was always started when I got home from work I’ve been doing some troubleshooting on my Vista Media Center computer only to find out that Vista automatically wakes my computer automatically at 2PM every day, just to download the electronic program guide. I have accidently blamed my beloved second half for starting the computer and watching TV in the morning after I leave and before she goes to work, but the truth is that it is Microsoft that is indirectly starting my computer automatically.
So every single day the computer starts automatically, unless I disable the Media Center task from Task Scheduler. But if I disable it, I cannot schedule recordings of TV show and this is really frustrating and I do certainly not see the point in why the computer starts automatically just to download the EPG that could easily be updated once I start the computer later at night? And I cannot say that this is a good feature choice of Microsoft from an environmental point of view, nor the economic perspective of the user that has to pay the electricity bill.