Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.newusers (
More info?)
Hi,
It's easy to confuse them all.
Essentially, WinXP Home is the same as WinXP Pro, just without the tools
normally used in a corporate environment (it's missing policy editors, file
encryption, and the ability to connect to a domain - all things a home user
would not normally need). The Media Center Edition (MCE) is a super-set of
the Pro version that has additional multimedia capabilities built in. This
version is only available as part of a prebuilt system, there is no retail
version.
The OEM version is the one that comes with preinstalled systems. This
differs from the retail disk in that the manufacturer may have added
additional driver support for their proprietary hardware, and does not have
to include the "value add" tools like ntbackup which are not essential to
normal operations. The core operating system is still the same, you just are
missing a few of the frills and often do not get a regular CD for use in
recovery operations. If you buy OEM, I would urge that you request a regular
generic CD (not a Recovery disk that resets you to factory state) as part of
the purchase. Most will provide these if asked, usually at an additional
nominal fee. You may have to get it direct from the manufacturer.
--
Best of Luck,
Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone
www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone
Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
"J.J. Holtz" <zwillow@fgi.net> wrote in message
news:29d001c49d39$f7ba3990$a401280a@phx.gbl...
>I am confused about the diferent versions of Windows XP.
> What is the difference between XP Home edition and XP Media
> Center edition? And also the XP version that comes already
> installed in the computers you buy now days. I understand
> it's different then the version you buy out-right.
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