Maximum PC

So I'm going to be losing my home office soon to make room for a child and I'm considering repurposing my PC in there into media center PC and putting it into the living room. My question is, is there any way to setup this up so that the PC can be recording/playing back media on the TV while at the same time, I can remote into it from a tablet and run a piece of software if I have to? I know about the remote desktop software for tablets, but it seems that it will just stream what is currently displaying on the TV to the tablet. Any particular version of Windows I would need for this?

Thanks!

The major issue would probably be licensing, since, (from what I remember) for all the non-server versions of windows, they only allow one person to be physically logged in or remotely logged in at one time. So, if someone was using the computer when you tried to remote in, they'd be locked out, or it wouldn't allow you to remote in. If this problem can be overcome, it is technically possible.

You would need something that allowed multiple concurrent remote desktop instances. It would be possible with a server version of Windows (the server version of Windows 7 being Server 2008 R2). Server versions will allow you to log in the same user multiple times, so log it in once on the tv and once on the tablet. Or if you want to venture out into legal grey area, there is a web guide I read once by googling "multiple remote desktop connections in Windows 7" that involved in modifying the dll's in Windows 7 to allow multiple concurrent connections, just like the server version. The effect of either method would be that you could log in the pc on the television, and on a tablet, and each would be running independent processes. So even if you had lots of programs open on the TV, a fresh login on the tablet would show an empty taskbar. Uses a fair amount of extra ram, but works flawlessly in most cases.

Oh, and the hack for Windows 7 remote desktop only works if your version of Windows already has remote desktop. So you would need to have Windows 7 Professional Or Ultimate. Home Premium or Starter won't work.

Would Windows Home Server 2011 work?

No, Windows Home Server would run into the same issue as Windows 7. Only one simultaneous user.

Another option would be VirtualBox. Use it to make virtual machine, and set up remote desktop on the virtualized system. You would need another copy of an operating system (anything with remote desktop in it, like XP Pro, Vista Business or 7 Pro or even linux), and set the network adapter in Virtualbox to Bridged Networking. Then you could run the virtual machine headless (or just minimize it) and then connect to it with the tablet, and the main host OS would be free to do whatever on the TV.

Another possible workaround is to use a "remote viewer" program such as TightVNC. This will allow you to view the screen of the currently logged on user. Then, set the computer up with two screens, one for videos, etc, and one to work on (you'd have to be careful to not interfere with the video screen).

Another option is to use Linux (either exclusively, as the host OS, or the virtualized OS).