The Xbox Dashboard is the main software that the original Xbox runs off of. It is what is displayed when the console is turned on when no game is inside the disc drive. The dashboard went through only minor changes, with the biggest being the addition of the Xbox Live tab to the main menu screen.
The Dashboard allows users to manage storage devices connected, play and rip music from CDs and the hard drive, access Xbox Live account details and alter console settings such as sound, video and network.
The main menu is mostly a green color with a large original Xbox logo placed predominantly on the left of this screen. To the right of this logo are four tabs which can be selected and open up a number of different options, these tabs include; Memory, Music, Xbox Live and Settings.
The original Xbox dashboard is also well known for playing strange, creepy noises when left idle for a prolonged time. Major Nelson revealed in a tweet that these sounds are actually "public domain audio from NASA transmissions" which has proven to be wrong as the voice clearly resembles Microsoft TTS SAM which has the same vocal structure and pitch as the audio heard.
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Memory[]
Selecting the Memory option will bring up a screen showing available storage options and how many blocks are available on each storage item. Selecting a location will bring up another menu showing all saves and other data of games that are stored in the selected location. Each game shows how many blocks it is using and the last time each save was modified. Game data can be copied and moved to another location or deleted from the hard drive.
Music[]
The music tab allows users to play, rip and manage music files either from a CD or directly off of the consoles hard drive. Like in the memory tab, music can be relocated to another storage device or deleted entirely.
Xbox Live[]
Selecting Xbox Live option gives the user the ability to sign into, create or recover an account. When signed in to an Xbox Live account the user could manage their friends, connect to a voice chat with other users and manage other details related to their account. This screen also showed the number of party invitations, friends online and friend requests.
However as of April, 2010 this tab can no longer be accessed due to servers for the original Xbox being shut down. Trying to select anything in the tab now will produce an error screen asking the user to troubleshoot their network connection.
Settings[]
The Settings tab is the fourth and final option on the Xbox Dashboard. Scrolling through each setting within this tab shows displays the current option that has been selected. Selecting each option allows the user to change what has been applied.
Within the settings tab the following system settings can be changed, date and time, language, video display, network options, auto sign-in options and auto off options. System info can also be found here which shows a copyright notice, the console's kernel version and console's dashboard version.