Hi,

I'm looking out for a new laptop, seeing that my current one is slowly dying, but after looking around a bit I see that many of them have Media Center installed these days.
My concern is that I had received a helpdesk email some time ago from someone having problems with unlocking LFS on media center and the same happened on his friends pc.

So my questions are :

-anyone else having unlocking problems with media center?
-anyone with advice on whether media edition is acceptable otherwise?
-media edition basically is a win XP version isn't it?

Cheers,

I've only used Windows XP Media Center Edition once, aside from the Media Center app I think it's largely the same as XP Home underneath. Feel free to correct me on that one though (I'm only speculating).

There's nothing to stop you wiping the laptop and installing whatever OS you want on the laptop. So long as you have a license (where applicable), of course.

not really applicable in my case - my current windows xp pro on my laptop is a factory install (you know - i only have a cd to restore the factory image) and the only other licensed xp I have is a home edition, which i don't want for my laptop (work computer). Buying xp pro separately is out of the question - it is REDICULOUSLY expensive, so i refuse to buy it separately.

Hmm I don't have the media center edition myself, but it's just some additional crap that nobody needs
But as game developer you should be able to get msdn access easily, so you can download most MS programs for free

[EDIT]
If you are not planning to sell the notebook (or warranty?), you can of course get a Windows XP pro CD from someone and use the CD key from the installation of the old notebook. It's mostly written down on a sticker at the bottom of the laptop, and on the manual / CD case whtever.

I have MCE on my media PC,

-anyone else having unlocking problems with media center?

No, no problems at all

-anyone with advice on whether media edition is acceptable otherwise?

Works just the same as XP IMO

-media edition basically is a win XP version isn't it?

Yes, its just XP home with a fancy HTPC frontend added on, which you dont have to use, other than that it works exactly as XP does.

Anyother questions, let me know.

Dan,

Just visit Scawen and "accidently" steal his XP install discs

Quote from AndroidXP :

Just visit Scawen and "accidently" steal his XP install discs

ROFL

This is what I hate about Microsoft. You buy a PC that has a certain Windows forced on you when you do not want those features. You want XP*** when you are forced to have XP@@@. To me, XP is XP. You pay for XP and you should get a disk to install it where ever you want rather than only on that particular PC. What happens when you format your old computer and throw it away or give it away? You still have a license for XP, but have to pay for a new copy because you don't have the disk.

Disregarding that rant and getting on topic, I have XP Media Center. It is my first experience with XP and I didn't have any problems with installing/unlocking/playing LFS. The only problems I had was framerates until I disabled the hundreds of crap they put on shelf-bought systems.

problem solved - i went for a 'not absolute state of the art' one which had xp pro on it and all the other stuff i wanted, so me happy

case closed

Quote from mrodgers :

You pay for XP and you should get a disk to install it where ever you want rather than only on that particular PC.

You'll find that most licenses that come with pre-bought PCs are infact OEM, which means non-transferable between hardware. Although nothing stops you from doing this, from a technical stand point; unless you are denied the disks. Whilst I don't agree with the Windows-tax on prebuilds, it's within their "right" to only provide restore facilities, rather than the full install media because of the type of license used.

Quote from the_angry_angel :

You'll find that most licenses that come with pre-bought PCs are infact OEM, which means non-transferable between hardware. Although nothing stops you from doing this, from a technical stand point; unless you are denied the disks. Whilst I don't agree with the Windows-tax on prebuilds, it's within their "right" to only provide restore facilities, rather than the full install media because of the type of license used.

You (and anybody buying a complete desktop) have the right to deny the Windows XP pre-install... Not only does OEM mean non-transferrable, but it also means no Microsoft Support. The downside is that you'll have to pay full price for a full license (and XP Pro is not cheap), the upside is that you don't have to pay for an inferior product if you don't want to.

On a side-note... Apparently Vista OEM licenses can be either installed on 2 systems (but not simultaneously), or the Vista complete license can no longer be installed on more than 2 systems. Also, you are not allowed to install any Vista version on a virtualisation system (like VMware) except for 3 expensive versions (business license, premium license, and Volume license). (edit: this is from a press release from MS to clarify the new licensing scheme... Did not clear things up from what I've read)

On-topic:
So what kind of notebook did you get, Victor? Wanna know if we're going to have to return the support you've given us over the years anytime soon

http://vaio.sony-europe.com/vi ... =ProductTechnicalFeatures

yes i love vaio's and i got it at a nice discount

Quote from danowat :

Yes, its just XP home with a fancy HTPC frontend added on, which you dont have to use, other than that it works exactly as XP does.

Just an FYI, Media Centre is XP Pro SP2 with a fancy new GUI rather than Home.
Though the only difference between Pro and Home is that Pro has IIS and has support for more processors.

I have media Centre and am getting S2 tommorow.
Its an alright system, With some cool extras. Like tv etc. Also comes with funky people that dance on your screen when music plays!

Quote from Victor :

http://vaio.sony-europe.com/vi ... =ProductTechnicalFeatures

yes i love vaio's and i got it at a nice discount

It's the discount that did it, right? Hollander

The only thing I don't like about this one (or any other notebook, really) is the HDD... There should be a full 3.5" HDD bay for regular 500GB 10k discs, not those lame 2.5" flat 80GB HDDs at 5400rpm. Other than that... Nice buy!

Quote from P5YcHoM4N :

Just an FYI, Media Centre is XP Pro SP2 with a fancy new GUI rather than Home.
Though the only difference between Pro and Home is that Pro has IIS and has support for more processors.

Uhmmm... No... It's Windows XP Home...
From Microsoft:

Quote :

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.

(also, try joining a PC with XP Home to a domain... There's more missing than just IIS and Multi processor support (I thought XP Home supported 2 procs, XP Pro up to 16, but I'm not sure))

And with Pro you can turn off Simple File Sharing.

Quote from TagForce :

Uhmmm... No... It's Windows XP Home...
From Microsoft:


(also, try joining a PC with XP Home to a domain... There's more missing than just IIS and Multi processor support (I thought XP Home supported 2 procs, XP Pro up to 16, but I'm not sure))

Weird, when I used it, it threw back Pro, I'd have to install it again to check, but that is way too much work.

Quote from P5YcHoM4N :

Weird, when I used it, it threw back Pro, I'd have to install it again to check, but that is way too much work.

I have no idea how WMCE behaves when upgrading an XP Pro install... It may be it will install MCE over Pro, in which case it would basically be Pro with the MCE shell. I've always believed it behaved like XP Home rather than Pro every time I installed it for one of our 'beloved customer relations'... The Microsoft statement kind of confirms that, but I'm not 100% sure it actually is just Home, or Pro with a lot of cool stuff removed.