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All Editions Of Windows XP

Home & Professional

 

The first two editions released by Microsoft are Windows XP Home Edition, designed for home users, and Windows XP Professional, designed for business and power users.

Windows XP Professional offers a number of features unavailable in the Home Edition, including:

• The ability to become part of a Windows Server domain, a group of computers

          that are remotely managed by one or more central servers.

• An access control scheme that allows specific permissions on files to be granted

          to specific users under normal circumstances. However, users can use tools other than

          Windows Explorer (like cacls or File Manager), or restart to Safe Mode to modify access control lists.

• Remote Desktop server, which allows a PC to be operated by another

          Windows XP user over a local area network or the Internet.

• Offline Files and Folders, which allow the PC to automatically store a copy of files

          from another networked computer and work with them while disconnected from the network.

• Encrypting File System, which encrypts files stored on the computer's hard drive so they

          cannot be read by another user, even with physical access to the storage medium.

• Centralized administration features, including Group Policies, Automatic Software

          Installation and Maintenance, Roaming User Profiles, and Remote Installation Service (RIS).

• Internet Information Services (IIS), Microsoft's HTTP and FTP Server.

• Support for two physical central processing units (CPU). (Because the number of CPU

          cores and Hyper-threading capabilities on modern CPUs are considered to be part of a single

          physical processor, multicore CPUs are supported using XP Home Edition.)

• Windows Management Instrumentation Console (WMIC): WMIC is a command-line tool designed

          to ease WMI information retrieval about a system by using simple keywords (aliases).

• The ability to switch hard disk storage type from Basic to Dynamic and vice-versa.

Edition N

In March 2004, the European Commission fined Microsoft €497million (£395 million or US$784 million) and ordered the company to provide a version of Windows without Windows Media Player. The Commission concluded that Microsoft "broke European Union competition law by leveraging its near monopoly in the market for PC operating systems onto the markets for work group server operating systems and for media players". After unsuccessful appeals in 2004 and 2005, Microsoft reached an agreement with the Commission where it would release a court-compliant version, Windows XP Edition N. This version does not include the company's Windows Media Player but instead encourages users to pick and download their own media player. Microsoft wanted to call this version Reduced Media Edition, but EU regulators objected and suggested the Edition N name, with the N signifying "not with Media Player"[6] for both Home and Professional editions of Windows XP. Because it is sold at the same price as the version with Windows Media Player included, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo and Fujitsu Siemens have chosen not to stock the product. However, Dell did offer the operating system for a short time. Consumer interest has been low, with roughly 1,500 units shipped to OEMs, and no reported sales to consumers.

The N editions of Windows XP also do not include Windows Movie Maker, but Microsoft has made this available as a separate download.

 

K & KN

In December 2005, the Korean Fair Trade Commission ordered Microsoft to make available editions of Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 that do not contain Windows Media Player or Windows Messenger. Like the European Commission decision, this decision was based on the grounds that Microsoft had abused its dominant position in the market to push other products onto consumers. Unlike that decision, however, Microsoft was also forced to withdraw the non-compliant versions of Windows from the South Korean market.

The K and KN editions of Windows XP Home Edition and Professional Edition were released in August 2006, and are only available in English and Korean. Both editions contain links to third-party instant messenger and media player software.

 

Home Edition ULCPC

This edition of Windows XP Home is intended for sale with certain "low-cost" netbooks and will appear labeled as "Windows XP Home Edition ULCPC" (with "ULCPC" standing for "ultra low cost personal computer")

 

Professional Blade PC Edition

This version comes preinstalled on OEM solutions providing desktops on Blade PC hardware. In addition to a copy of Windows XP Professional, it includes a Remote Desktop License.

 

Starter Edition

 

Windows XP Starter Edition is a lower-cost version of Windows XP available in Thailand, Vietnam, Turkey, Indonesia, India, Philippines, Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Mexico, Ecuador, Uruguay, Malaysia, and Venezuela. It is similar to Windows XP Home, but is limited to low-end hardware, can only run 3 programs at a time, and has some other features either removed or disabled by default.

According to a Microsoft press release, Windows XP Starter Edition is "a low-cost introduction to the Microsoft Windows XP operating system designed for first-time desktop PC users in developing countries."

Specialization

The Starter Edition includes some special features for certain markets where consumers may not be computer literate. Not found in the Home Edition, these include localised help features for those who may not speak English, a country-specific computer wallpaper[16] and screensavers, and other default settings designed for easier use than typical Windows XP installations. The Malaysian version, for example, contains a desktop background of the Kuala Lumpur skyline.

In addition, the Starter Edition also has some unique limitations to prevent it from displacing more expensive versions of Windows XP.[17] Only three applications can be run at once on the Starter Edition, and each application may open a maximum of three windows. The maximum screen resolution is 1024×768, and there is no support for workgroup networking or domains. In addition, the Starter Edition is licensed only for low-end processors like Intel's Celeron or AMD's Duron and Sempron. There is also a 512 MB limit on main memory and a 120 GB disk size limit.[17] Microsoft has not made it clear, however, if this is for total disk space, per partition, or per disk. There are also fewer options for customizing the themes, desktop, and taskbar.

 

Media Center Edition

 

This edition, which was code-named "Freestyle" during its development, was first released in September 2002. The initial release was available solely in conjunction with computers that included media center capabilities, and could not be purchased separately. The first major update was released in 2004 and distributed by Tier 1 OEMs who had previously sold Windows XP Media Center Edition PC, and then updated again in 2005, which was the first edition available for System Builders. Many of the features of Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 (including screen dancers, auto playlist DJ, and high end visual screen savers) were taken from the Windows XP Plus! packages. These were originally shipped as add ons to Windows XP to enhance the users experience of their Windows XP machine.

Releases

A preview version of Windows XP Media Center Edition from Microsoft's eHome division, was shown as CES 2002, with the final version released in July 2002.[21]

• Windows XP Media Center Edition ("Freestyle", July 2002) This was the original release. Updates to this release added features such as FM radio tuning. This release combined with updates is sometimes referred to as Windows XP Media Center Edition 2003.

• Windows XP Media Center Edition 2004 ("Harmony", September 2003) Windows XP Service Pack 2 upgrades earlier versions of MCE to this one.

• Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 ("Symphony", October 2004) is the first edition of MCE available to non-Tier 1 system builders. Among other things it includes support for Media Center Extenders, and CD/DVD-Video burning support.

• Update Rollup 2 for Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 ("Emerald", October 2005) is a major update to MCE 2005 (Symphony) and was a recommended download. It adds support for the Xbox 360 as a media center extender, DVB-T broadcasts, and support for two ATSC tuner cards.

After the 2005 release, Microsoft focused their efforts on building new media center features into Windows Vista's "Home Premium" and "Ultimate" editions, which, unlike the releases of Windows XP Media Center Edition, are available for retail purchase without the necessary hardware.

Features

The most notable feature unique to this edition is the Windows Media Center, which provides a large-font, remotely accessible interface ("10-foot user interface") for television viewing on the computer as well as recording and playback, a TV guide, DVD playback, video playback, photo viewing, and music playback. Unlike competing commercial digital video recorder products, Microsoft does not charge a monthly subscription fee for its Media Center TV guide service.

Due to strict hardware requirements, Microsoft did not sell Media Center Edition in retail markets alongside the Home and Professional editions. Microsoft only distributes it to MSDN subscribers and OEM System Builders in certain countries. Consumers generally purchase Media Center preinstalled on a new computer, or from a reseller that sells OEM versions of Microsoft software.

Media Center Edition was the only consumer-oriented edition of Windows XP that was updated with new features on an annual basis during the five-year development of Windows Vista. The MCE 2005 release, for example, includes an update to Windows Movie Maker that supports burning DVDs, a new visual style called "Royale", support for Media Center Extenders, and SoundSpectrum's G-Force sound visualizations. Microsoft also released its own remote control, receiver and infrared blaster with MCE 2005. A new specially designed wireless computer keyboard for MCE 2005 was released September 2005.

Using Media Center Extenders or the Xbox 360, Media Center Edition is also able to connect and stream recorded TV, music and pictures, over a network connection.

Media Center Edition retains most of the features included in Windows XP Professional as it is simply an addon to Professional, installed when provided with a valid MCE product key during setup. All Professional features have been left in, including Remote Desktop and the Encrypting File System, however the ability to join an Active Directory domain has been removed as it is marketed as a home product with no need for domain support. One value in the registry is all that is needed to circumvent this restriction; if the installation of MCE 2005 is an in-place upgrade from a previous version already joined to a domain, this ability is retained, unless a user uses a Windows Media Center Extender: in this case, such ability is lost and cannot be restored. Presumably, Microsoft introduced this limit because Media Center Extender devices, introduced in this version, rely on the Fast User Switching component, but this component must be disabled in order to join a domain.

Hardware requirements

The Software Version screen showing MCE running on an Intel Core 2 Duo computer.

Media Center has higher hardware requirements than other editions of Windows XP. MCE 2005 requires at least a 1.6 GHz processor, DirectX 9.0 hardware-accelerated GPU (ATI Radeon 9 series or nVidia GeForce FX Series or higher), and 256 MB of system RAM. Some functionality, such as Media Center Extender support, use of multiple tuners, or HDTV playback/recording carries higher system requirements.

Media Center is much more restricted in the range of hardware that it supports than most other software DVR solutions. Media Center tuners must have a standardized driver interface, and they (originally) required a hardware MPEG-2 encoder, closed caption support, and a number of other features. Media Center remote controls are standardized in terms of button labels and functionality, and, to a degree, general layout.