Dual (or even Triple) Booting

[dmw16]

First off, is it possible to dual boot between XP Home and XP Media Center (so I can stream to my xbox360)? Alternatly can I just use MEdia Center for all my windows related needs?

Also - can anyone recommend a writeup on how to dual boot between XP and Linux?

thanks.

 

[Cerb]

1. Yes, but it's pointless.
2. Yes. MCE 2005 is based on XP Home, so they are equally useful and limited.
3. Dual-boot between XP and Linux: use a Linux distro that is based on Debian (GRUB will take over booting, and one option will be Windows).

 

[dmw16]

How should the HD be partitioned during the Windows install?

 

[Tsaico]

I would split it 60/40 based on which one you will use the most having the larger partition. I would use teh OS partion managers to partition and format each of there perspective partitions.

And I agree on dual booting media center and xp home as being useless.

 

[Cerb]

Partitions...try it and see. EAch OS will need a partition, and you may want one to be used as a shared files partition. It will probably be best to put the Linux one(s) at the beginning of the drive.

 

[stash]

Yes. MCE 2005 is based on XP Home, so they are equally useful and limited

It's actually based on Pro, but the point is valid. Dual booting XP (pro or home) and MCE is pointless.

 

[Cerb]

Originally posted by: STaSh

Yes. MCE 2005 is based on XP Home, so they are equally useful and limited

It's actually based on Pro, but the point is valid. Dual booting XP (pro or home) and MCE is pointless.

Join a domain with it.
Oh, wait, you can't.

MCE 2004 was Pro. 2005 is Home.

Im fact, from MS' own FAQ:

Can I connect a new PC running Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 to a work network or domain?

While you can access network resources on a work network or a domain, you cannot join a Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 PC to the domain. PCs running Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 are designed specifically for home use. Windows XP Professional features, specifically Domain Join and Cached Credentials (Credentials Manager for logons) are not included. As a result, you will be prompted for your logon user name and password to access network resources after you reboot or log back on to the PC. In addition, file shares or network resources that are set to require a domain-joined PC for access will not be available. Remote Desktop and Encrypting File System support are still included.

 

[Wik]

Once and for all, MCE 2005 is neither Home or Pro. It is Media Center Edition. It is just another version of XP. You can't call it Home, because it has Remote Desktop. You can't call it Pro because it can not join a domain.

 

[Cerb]

Originally posted by: Wik
Once and for all, MCE 2005 is neither Home or Pro. It is Media Center Edition. It is just another version of XP. You can't call it Home, because it has Remote Desktop. You can't call it Pro because it can not join a domain.

And it's one more case of MS alienating people who might use it if they made it even slightly less restrictive. They might have a deep fear of Samba, though...

 

[Wik]

Originally posted by: Cerb

Originally posted by: Wik
Once and for all, MCE 2005 is neither Home or Pro. It is Media Center Edition. It is just another version of XP. You can't call it Home, because it has Remote Desktop. You can't call it Pro because it can not join a domain.

And it's one more case of MS alienating people who might use it if they made it even slightly less restrictive. They might have a deep fear of Samba, though...

Not sure what you just said, but to get back on topic, there really is no need to triple boot XP Home or Pro with MCE for a home system. My HTPC is MCE 2005 and a guest game computer. I have a XP pro system as my desktop, and my laptop came with Home. A home user really will not see the difference in the three.

 

[Cerb]

I wouldn't be able to get to anything on my home network without being able to log on to a domain. Workgroups are a poor substitute (share-level permissions--yuck), not half as easy to use (I love the irony of 'simple file sharing'), and it is even easy in Linux to use a domain to deal with such things (in fact, ClarkConnect makes it dead simple to make a PDC); and should have been left behind, with the rest of Win9x. It also makes for something that any decent Linux distro can do, but that Windows, costing far more than a few hundred MB bandwidth and blank CD, will not do, even though it would not take any significant amount of work to include it. The lack of the feature serves no purpose other than for MS to divide the market to their liking.

 

[stash]

Join a domain with it.
Oh, wait, you can't.

Sure you can.

MCE 2004 was Pro. 2005 is Home

You have it backwards...

Im fact, from MS' own FAQ:

The FAQ was written for the most common MCE scenario--buying a machine from an OEM with the OS preinstalled. The only (easy) way to join an MCE2005 box to a domain is during the OS installation, which the majority of MCE users don't do.

Once and for all, MCE 2005 is neither Home or Pro. It is Media Center Edition. It is just another version of XP. You can't call it Home, because it has Remote Desktop. You can't call it Pro because it can not join a domain.

It is a separate SKU, yes, but it is based off of Pro. CD1 is XP SP2 pro. CD2 has the MCE bits. Your PID determines what SKU gets installed. And it can join a domain 😉 The only true difference between MCE and Pro is that there is no credman (for some unknown and extremely annoying reason).

And it's one more case of MS alienating people who might use it if they made it even slightly less restrictive

Do you really think that MCE's target market is running a domain in their house? Which it is perfectly capable of joining anyway. You realize that almost half of the retail PCs sold in the US during the month of December 2005 were running MCE right?

The version of Media Center in Vista will truely remove the domain join issue (you can join a domain and still have extender functionality), and it will be included in at least 2 SKUs of Vista.

 

[stash]

Missed this one:

I wouldn't be able to get to anything on my home network without being able to log on to a domain

net use * \\domaincomputer\sharename /u😀omain\username

Or rock the GUI with Explorer if you want. There's nothing keeping you from accessing domain resources from a non-domain member. As long as you have an account on the domain.

The only problem is you can't make it persistent, which is the annoying credman thing I referred to.

 

[videopho]

I have basically same question but at different o/s:
Either x64 Pro or XP Pro
Is it possible? I am on x64 Pro at the moment but have some second thought switching back to xp pro.

 

[Cerb]

Originally posted by: STaSh

Join a domain with it.
Oh, wait, you can't.

Sure you can.

After the install? Looks like DLL patching is needed from what I can see.

MCE 2004 was Pro. 2005 is Home

You have it backwards...

MCE 2004 joins a domain just fine after install. I've used it.

Im fact, from MS' own FAQ:

The FAQ was written for the most common MCE scenario--buying a machine from an OEM with the OS preinstalled. The only (easy) way to join an MCE2005 box to a domain is during the OS installation, which the majority of MCE users don't do.

Annoying if changing a domain, too.

Once and for all, MCE 2005 is neither Home or Pro. It is Media Center Edition. It is just another version of XP. You can't call it Home, because it has Remote Desktop. You can't call it Pro because it can not join a domain.

It is a separate SKU, yes, but it is based off of Pro. CD1 is XP SP2 pro. CD2 has the MCE bits. Your PID determines what SKU gets installed. And it can join a domain 😉 The only true difference between MCE and Pro is that there is no credman (for some unknown and extremely annoying reason).

Is there a way to get full Pro + MCE functionality out of it? If not, why not? Also, why not just make Tablet and MCE add-ons and get around the whole thing? Then we can have our cake, eat it too, recommend it tothers, and not complain about it, except for cost, which is fairly small compared to a nice PC anyway.

And it's one more case of MS alienating people who might use it if they made it even slightly less restrictive

Do you really think that MCE's target market is running a domain in their house? Which it is perfectly capable of joining anyway. You realize that almost half of the retail PCs sold in the US during the month of December 2005 were running MCE right?

Yes. I figured it would be more, actually. I know four people who got new PCs recently. Three MCE, one Home. Why? It was on the PC. None of them use any MCE functionality.

The version of Media Center in Vista will truely remove the domain join issue (you can join a domain and still have extender functionality), and it will be included in at least 2 SKUs of Vista.

 

[stash]

Also, why not just make Tablet and MCE add-ons and get around the whole thing? Then we can have our cake, eat it too, recommend it tothers, and not complain about it, except for cost, which is fairly small compared to a nice PC anyway.

This is essentially what will happen with Vista.

The issue with domain functionality was not an arbitrary one, as you seem to think. Media Extenders were introduced for MCE 2005, but they required that the machine not be joined to a domain to work correctly. Microsoft was aware of this, but did not want to spend the considerable time and resources need to rewrite winlogon and whatever else in order for domain joined machines to support extenders. Balanced against the money and time required to fix it, the number of users that MCE was targeted for that would be inconvienced by this design was not enough to rationalize the design change at the time.

I see email from colleagues internally all the time that complain about the inability to join their MCE2005 boxes to a domain, so you certainly aren't the only one complaining. But you and I and my colleagues are enthusiasts. Most people who are interested in MCE are looking for a simple box, ala TiVo, and are not managing complex home networks with group policy, etc.

But again, this will all be different in Vista 🙂

 

[Cerb]

If that does happen with Vista, MS might really have something. These largely artificial divides have been annoying since Win2k/ME (...and I don't mean to extend this to the Server series, as that has a long tradition of such crap, of which MS is just using the same practices everyone else has for ages, and where moving 'up' always includes more functionality, rather than trading functionality).

 

[scottish144]

Originally posted by: dmw16
How should the HD be partitioned during the Windows install?

I would make a 33/33/32/1/1
Windows (NTFS)/Shared(Fat32)/Linux(EXT3)/Windows(Swap)/Linux(Swap)

This allows you to have a functional PC if Windows craps out (Saved me a few months ago). Use the OS partitions for the OS (duh) and programs, while using the shared for your personal documents. Linux cannot write to NTFS, but can read and write to FAT drives.