LeMarchand

If you want to "keep it clean", PIN protect your profile/s and explain why to your folks. Guess you may be able to cast to the TV from a personal device, too.

Have you tried extracting the exe or msi with 7-Zip? Edit: Or you could install on an unimportant machine and the extract the drivers from it.

Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze (Blu-Ray, but available as VoD) 1975 adaptation of the pulp novels from producer George "War of the Worlds" Pal. I loved this as a kid - to the extent of trying to find some of the books to read - but really should have left it as a memory. Sorry Dad! You were right, it really was a bit poor. The main points of interest were recognising Paul Gleason (the Principal from "The Breakfast Club") as one of The Fabulous Five and an early starring role for Pamela "Princess Ardala" Hensley.

Apparently Bella Ramsey's GoT co-star Maisie Williams was also in the running for Ellie, as was Booksmart's Kaitlyn Dever who really looked the part. Both got "too old" (KD is now 26). Mind you, Bella Ramsey is already 19!

Stargate movie and TV peeps combine for SyFy's "The Ark". US Feb 1st; no UK broadcaster that I can spot.

Season 2 due Summer. Must get around to Season 1!

If you're not ordering much or watching much I'd cancel. I used to have a "top up" wishlist of stuff that I'd like but wasn't desperate for that I'd use when I wanted to push an order over £20. IIRC you could "save up" shows you want to see and then pay for a month and binge. Just remember to cancel.

It's on the "to watch" list, but not got around to it yet. Bonus Daughter #2 is allegedly moving out soon so we may get around to the backlog of shows she wants to watch but, as she's often working late or running around after various people, rarely has time to.

Guess the Xmas Day release for Witcher: Blood Origin wasn't the best idea as no-one's mentioned it. Saw the first one last night and thought it was possibly a stronger start than the first Witcher.

(My emphasis) So a totally unbiased bit of work, then? Does this mean FB will be policing people's feeds, because content will soon be scarce if it does. Not condoning password sharing or other copyright infringement and IANAL, but I thought the offence was the sharingrather than the viewing, too. Still, might be bad news for staff using their personal accounts to entertain the pupils. I find a lot of content on Netflix though. Apple TV+, oth, I had free for 5 months and never used! They have some shows of interest, but there's always something better on Netflix, Disney or even Prime. Related to the Forbes article, from the .gov site, bad news for FB Marketplace, I suspect:

I've got this one: https://smile.amazon.co.uk/dp/B06XJZTPTD I just use the provided dongle in the HTPC and it does for navigating and the odd bit of keyboard use for searching. As mentioned above, "OK" is a "left mouse click" rather than "activate highlighted" in Plex (though flipping it to use the "Enter" key on the keyboard works as expected).

Is the PS5 any better in that regard? Both my PS3 and PS4 (Pro) take an age to install most things. I have noticed on the PS4 that a few app updates of stuff like Prime have seemed to happen in the background recently, so maybe they've improved things? That said, I recently discovered that the PS4 is a bit of a power hog so I'll be sticking to other ways to access that sort of app!

Bought one of those plugs that give you a good idea about how much electricity each device is using. So far I've been pleasantly surprised by most of the devices I've tested, apart from the PS4 (Pro). I'll be sticking to the Virgin V6 for Netflix and Prime!

Deffo Die Hard and (based on the bits I've seen; never watched the whole film) Home Alone. Not overly familiar with the first named film but I'd add in a touch of Peter Pan. Lots of violent fun and well worth a look if the trailer piqued your interest.

The OP inspired me to take a look at my HTPC set up as, although I'm planning on a new TV soon, we all know how long the apps on such things stay functional. Like @AB_IT it's the need for something that the rest of the family will be able to turn on and just use a remote to access. So, front end solutions if going down the HTPC route. HTPC currently W10, but I know the Start Menu can be reinstated on W11. HTPC is set to auto log in, has a "PC remote/keyboard" and yes, I do have seasonally themed wallpaper slideshows. Start Menu. ff you can force Tablet Mode even better as it will autolaunch the Start Menu. I used WinTiler 2 (<£3) to create a couple of "large" tiles to match the others, though I did see other apps including one that claimed you could do "live tiles". Advantages: Quick and easy. Disadvantages: Bit dull - though if you varied the sizes and threw in some Live Tiles probably OK, constrained by limitations of Start Menu layout limitations, only exes with WinTiler 2 - though I guess you could script a "launcher" and use something like bat2exe for pretty much anything, or find something more flexible for the tiles. Rainmeter. I found a skin called Spectrum v3 that is basically a launcher. Obviously there are many, many, more skins. I did think that this was particularly suited to HTPC use. Advantages: Very customisable and (IMHO) looks great, with a bit of work will launch pretty much anything you have access to via your machine. Disadvantages: Unless you're familiar with Rainmeter it's a bit of a learning curve. After log in, you get the main panel. You can customize pretty much everything as it's Rainmeter. Each panel has a mouseover graphic that if/when I have time I may change (favourite Netflix show behind Netflix etc): After you close the open app it takes you back to the desktop and mousing/waving the remote (if you have a suitable remote as mentioned earlier) near the top of the screen will bring up the "full" launcher. Again, this should be customisable; I think I'd prefer this to be the default and I may look into seeing if I can keep the skin active on the desktop. Anyway, as you can see, there are 4 built-in launch panels allowing for up to 24 apps/whatevers, possibly more with tweaking, and a few other buttons. I'll probably get around to hiding some of these. Quite pleased with the Rainmeter setup, though getting the Store apps to launch was a PITA and the syntax for launching exes seems to have changed since the skin was created. Gonna test it on Mme LeMarchand next time we need something via Plex or Disney. We currently use the Virgin box for most things as it's power draw is quite low (I suspect that the HTPC is a fair bit higher - must get around to testing it) but it's always good to have a backup device. The Virgin interface is ugly, but if it saves on the leccy these days it's a big factor to take into account.

Your Christmas or Mine? (Amazon Prime) A young student couple are about to head off to their respective parents for Christmas, but can't bear to be apart and run to each other's trains. Various plot devices mean they have to spend the holiday with each other's parents, but neither of them has been entirely honest with their folks or each other. I feel old: Bruno (from The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas) is now old enough to be the lead in a romcom. This one is sweet enough, but you do need to turn off any sort of need for realism (first question: why do neither of them try to find each other in "their" train?). What is it with Christmas romcoms and trains in this country btw?

Poor Emily Blunt! has she got another cheater on her hands?

I hate reality shows and consider them the modern equivalent of the circenses part of the Roman panem et circenses. But each to their own as I suspect I'm the only one here who holds two of my favourite shows of recent years ("The Magicians" and "Hotel del Luna") in such high esteem.

Last Train to Christmas (Sky Movies) Last year's Sky train/Christmas movie stars Michael Sheen as Tony Towers, a Peter Stringfellow type nightclub impresario who, on Christmas Eve 1985, finds himself travelling home by a train. Somehow, moving forward a carriage takes him a decade forward in his life. He takes this in his stride and when he sees things aren't going to work out as well as he hoped realises that each carriage back can take him a decade back, so he can course correct... The trailer made this look like a light-hearted romp, but it is actually a fairly downbeat family drama and doesn't qualify as a "Christmas" film. Cary Elwes is impressively unrecognisable as Tony's bother and Sheen manages to rescue the ending, when it would have been nice to learn just how things worked out, with a look that speaks volumes. Not without its merits, but this year's This Is Christmas is more fun if you want trains and Christmas.

Men (Various premium rental) After her husband dies in a freak accident (?) soon after she announces she wants a divorce, Harper decides to take a country break to get away from things. Unfortunately the place she chooses has an almost all male population, all of whom look like the same guy. I'm not a fan of "mental anguish" dramas, which this probably is - it's almost wilfully oblique, so who knows? It's stunningly shot, with verdant landscapes and the music and soundscapes help to engender a feeling of dread but it was way too up its own backside for my tastes. I'm also not sure that Harper was a particularly likeable person. Maybe worth a watch with a film buff friend that you can discuss the movie with, but I'd say to steer clear.

Re the web apps, it's possible to create shortcuts for "Store" apps - https://windowsloop.com/create-desktop-shortcut-for-any-store-app-in-windows-10/ - you'd have to see if these would work as a web link or go for the Full Screen Start Menu option. If the limit is a DRM thing, this solution may help: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250815951 Not familiar with SmartTube, but you could use the Windows Subsystem for Android (if you have W11 on a decent machine) to sideload it and see if it works that way. IIRC the "installed" apps just show as standard Start Menu shortcuts. You'd also need this method if you want the Apple TV+ app which, for some reason(!), isn't on the Microsoft Store. Mind you, if you need to go down that route, what about an Android TV box? I've never researched them, so they may not meet your criteria.

Get a partner-friendly box. SilverStone do some "media player" style cases or you could go down the NUC/micro type route if you want it more hidden. Get a suitable remote; I have something like https://smile.amazon.co.uk/Techta-Wireless-Raspberry-Presentation-Computers/dp/B08QV6L476 but "OK" works as left mouse rather than "highlighted option". I haven't investigated to see if this is changeable (probably not). If your TV remote has spare relevant buttons or you have an "All in One" type remote you could also fit an IR receiver and use a decoder to enable the PC to accept commands. I have tried this and thought it was more trouble than it was worth, YMMV. There's probably a phone app that might be of use here - possibly even more configurable. I've had a Plex lifetime sub for years, so I don't know if "Discovery" is paid, but searching and clicking will take you to the web page for a show if you don't mind using your browser to view. If nothing else, you will at least know which app to use. So maybe set Plex start full screen with Windows? I gave up on Kodi when it was XBMC so it may well do the same stuff; idk. Otherwise, interface wise there is the much-maligned W8 fullscreen start page (can be reinstated in 11) or, possibly less flexible, use large icons on the desktop with a neutral background. If your OK with using web apps for content you could also knock up an html page as a homepage with logos and links to the relevant sites (this definitely works in Firefox, as that's what my "home" homepage is). There are probably extensions that will do this for you. Not sure if you can launch exes/apps this way, but possibly worth looking into.

What are the differences?

Don't call or text during the movie!

Remo Williams (aka The Destroyer aka Fred Ward (RIP))? Relevant bit at 1.21, but then you'd miss seeing Captain Janeway as the"Bond Girl" equivalent.