Upgrading from Win XP Media Center OS to Win XP Pro

[mauiblue]

I recently ordered (coming in this week) a new Toshiba Qosmio® Notebook PC (G35-AV650) that has the new HD DVD drive. I'm thinking of changing the OS to Win XP Pro. Would that be a good route to go or just stay with the original OS (Windows Media Center 2005)? I will be doing some digital editing using PhotoShop CS and even Adobe Premiere Pro if the notebook was up to it. I will be using it also to playback DVDs and some gaming like FarCry or even HL2. Would there be any benefit in moving to Win XP? TIA.

 

[Pciber]

I wouldn't bother upgrading to XP pro. First and foremost XP MCE can't be upgraded to XP pro - so you would have to buy the full retail of XP pro, and do a fresh install, losing all extra programs and such that come with the toshiba. The main difference you will notice is if you plan to bring the computer to lan parties or larger networks - XP MCE 2005 is based on home, which only supports about 4 computers for networking, whereas pro is unlimited. For the applications you mentioned, i see no obvious reason to upgrade to pro.

 

[mauiblue]

Aloha and thank you Pciber for your reply to my post. I will stick with Media Center.

 

[pcgeek11]

Windows Media center is based on Windows XP Pro anyway with some minor modifications. You can turn off the media center.

pcgeek

 

[Pciber]

Originally posted by: pcgeek11
Windows Media center is based on Windows XP Pro anyway with some minor modifications. You can turn off the media center.

pcgeek

the original windows XP media center was. With the 2005 edition the base was changed to XP home.

 

[pcgeek11]

Damn I didn't know that! Thanks...

pcgeek11

 

[spyordie007]

Originally posted by: Pciber

Originally posted by: pcgeek11
Windows Media center is based on Windows XP Pro anyway with some minor modifications. You can turn off the media center.

pcgeek

the original windows XP media center was. With the 2005 edition the base was changed to XP home.

This is incorrect.

Windows XP MCE 2005 is not "based" on either Pro or Home. It's "based" on the Windows XP core (version independent) and contains *almost* the same feature set as XP Pro with the addition of the MCE componenets (AFAIK it's only missing cached credentials and that they've made it harder, but not impossible to join a domain).

XP MCE 2005 is much closer to XP Pro than it is to XP Home.

Erik

 

[mauiblue]

After some time working with Window MCE 2005, I decided that I wanted to give Windows XP Pro a shot. Toshiba provided a recovery disk with all the drivers and apps that are installed on a factory fresh notebook. So I took the plunge and installed XP Pro. It was a bit tedious but I was able to install all the drivers and only the apps I wanted to run. All that trial software and AOL crap was left out. This was bit more cleaner setup than uninstalling the fluff I didn't want from an OEM install which possibly could leave software and registry remnants. So far so good and all the main apps, utilities, drivers, and hardware is working great. I'll install MS Office tomorrow after I backup the new OS and keep my fingers crossed.

 

[stash]

Windows XP MCE 2005 is not "based" on either Pro or Home. It's "based" on the Windows XP core (version independent) and contains *almost* the same feature set as XP Pro with the addition of the MCE componenets (AFAIK it's only missing cached credentials and that they've made it harder, but not impossible to join a domain).

XP MCE 2005 is much closer to XP Pro than it is to XP Home.

Quoted for truth. This silly argument comes up at least once a week. MCE is not Pro, not Home, it's XP with the MCE feature set. This feature set happens to include things like RDP, IIS, EFS.