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Windowx XP MCE = rebranded XP Home or XP Pro?

M

MrNeutrino

Member
Is the "XP" MCE version, a modified version of XP Home, or XP Pro.

That is, with XP MCE (or MCE 2005 as the case maybe), do you get all the XP Pro features - folder security permissions etc. or just ones that XP Home has?
 
Originally posted by: MrNeutrino
Is the "XP" MCE version, a modified version of XP Home, or XP Pro.

That is, with XP MCE (or MCE 2005 as the case maybe), do you get all the XP Pro features - folder security permissions etc. or just ones that XP Home has?
Click to expand...

Neither, MCE is a version of XP just like Home and Pro is. The 'closest' version of MCE is PRO. However MCE does not have all of the features of PRO (it has most, however).
 
Originally posted by: Parasitic
You can enable the Pro features that were turned off in MCE though.
Click to expand...

Kinda of. Cached credentials is turned off by a code check. It can be circumvented if the system thinks its an upgrade (which was a STUPID decision, IMHO). Domain support can also be 'enabled' however it breaks extender support which requires fast user switching. So overall you really can't have 'all' the pro features and 'all' the MCE features at the same time (but you can be darn close)
 
Thanks for the clarification, guys. It's good to understand the feature differences. I should clarify though that this is just for a home PC using XP Home at present, that will reside on a home network (workgroup vs. domain).

I can't recall all the Home vs. Pro differences off the top of my head at present. However, if one of the main things I'm looking for is file/folder level permissions, is that a feature available in MCE?

BTW, what's the difference between MCE and MCE 2005? Is this a completely new release from MS or more like XP vs. XP SP2 type (updated media) release?

Also, is the Vista based media center really that much better - polished / stable / better featured / flexible etc.? I'm getting that feeling from reading many of the posts around here.

Among other things, few of the key things I care about, are:
- the above mentioned security feature (file folder permission settings enforceable on a per account basis, that's not a joke like Windows 98/ME)
- stable and polished media center software that isn't an untested yet released, bug-infested mess like the bundled softwares that come with TV tuners
- software and driver compatibility and resulting system stability
- best possible performance (OS not a limiting factor) for video/audio editing and encoding tasks (+ basic browsing / email tasks)

Based on this, any suggestions then, as to what I should go with, when I upgrade (from current XP Home): Vista Home Premium (with VMC) or MCE / MCE 2005 OEM?

(This question may sound rhetorical in that you may ask why even bother investing in MCE variants at this point. However, depending on how much better Vista Home Premium is at media center capabilities, I'm questioning to myself, the need to move to that at this point while sacrificing potential driver compatibility or OS performance for specific tasks I'm interested in. Opinions welcome.)
 
(This question may sound rhetorical in that you may ask why even bother investing in MCE variants at this point. However, depending on how much better Vista Home Premium is at media center capabilities, I'm questioning to myself, the need to move to that at this point while sacrificing potential driver compatibility or OS performance for specific tasks I'm interested in. Opinions welcome.)
Click to expand...

IMHO if your going to upgrade anyhow, I'd move to Vista. It simply has a longer runway for future changes than XP does at this point and the media center features have been generally praised as improved over XP.

 
Great, sounds like as long as Vista media center 'does' have supposedly improved features / looks / stability(?) vs. MCE, I feel better considering Home Premium.

I agree - the futureproof argument going with Vista vs. XP has been the source of my dilemma.
 
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