licensing [xp pro = xp mce]?

subway

odd question,
ive purchased a machine to use as a htpc.
it comes with an xp pro coa.

i would like to use mce instead of pro on this pc.
does the pro license cover me to downgrade to mce,
a slightly crippled and cheaper version of the same os?
or am i required to buy a new license?

aidan_walsh

Without actually looking at each of the licenses, I would say you are most likely not allowed that. Especially if your copy of Pro was bundled with your PC.

Karoma

No.
MS don't like it and will scream piracy. MCE (2005) is still OEM-only, AFAIK, so you'd only be able to legally purchase it with accompanying hardware. I don't think the keys are interchangable.
Have a read through some newsgroups [ microsoft.public.windows.*]

They also seem to consider MCE and upgrade from XP Pro. heh.
Have a look into MCE alternatives, like MediaPortal or something?

jhegarty

subway wrote:

odd question,
ive purchased a machine to use as a htpc.
it comes with an xp pro coa.

i would like to use mce instead of pro on this pc.
does the pro license cover me to downgrade to mce,
a slightly crippled and cheaper version of the same os?
or am i required to buy a new license?

MCE is an upgrade from XP Pro

subway

thanks for the info guys.
i have mce edition already so was thinking if i installed it on another machine that was licensed for xp pro i would be covered by the pro license.

ill be testing media portal when my tv card arrives,
but depending on how that works out ill probably invest in another mce license.
thanks for the info.

jhegarty

jhegarty wrote:

MCE is an upgrade from XP Pro

But technically its not. It can't participate in a domain without a registry hack. Then it's an upgrade of pro.

But anyway, back on topic, you TV card has to be compatible with MCE for it to work. My laptop has MCE but my TV card doesn't have compatible drivers so I still need to use the manufacturer supplied software.

subway

have a hauppage 150mce so good to go on that front

PDD

As an aside questioni is it possible to upgrade from XP-Home to XP=Pro and not have to pay the full whack?

PDD

Karoma

PDD wrote:

As an aside questioni is it possible to upgrade from XP-Home to XP=Pro and not have to pay the full whack?

PDD

Pay for an 'XP Pro upgrade'.

Capt'n Midnight

PDD wrote:

As an aside questioni is it possible to upgrade from XP-Home to XP=Pro and not have to pay the full whack?

PDD

not legally.

Depends on what you want PRO for

participating in Domain security and active directory means corporate means you pay . if you put a logon script in StartUp folder you can map drives on a domain easily enough. XP HOME is the only networkable microsoft OS that won't run domain logon scripts. (Win 3.11 doesn't either but then again networking was only a patch on 3.1)

if you want DHCP / DNS / Webserver etc. plenty of free apps to do this

Don't forget Ntbackup is on the XP home CD

PDD

Cheers man much appreciated :-)