BleepingComputer.com: Windows Media Center Customization

I have had Windows Vista Ultimate for the past few months and this is the first time that I have had an operating system from Windows that had media center on it. So far, my relationship with media center is a love / hate one. Media center has a beautiful graphical interface and is remarkably easy to use...but it is lacking it something far more important - functionality and customization. I googled around and found a few garbage links leading to thinks like MCE Customizer which increases the customization to a very small degree, and all features that I am not interested in changing. I was wondering if anyone knows how to customize this, knows of a program that can, or can point me in the right direction if such a post has been made before (I looked and couldn't find anything). More specifically, what I am interested in customizing: continuous video playback (i.e. playlist, as in all other media players), removing and adding particular files / folders (MC only allows you to add folders and remove them but there are folders I want to add with files in them that I don't want added to the library), change the background of media center, way that videos/pictures/etc. are displayed graphically, etc. Any information on this topic would be greatly appreciated.

d3k0y