RE: [OT] Question about MCE 2005

["Keith Doxey" <ukha@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Paul

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Paul Gordon [mailto:paul@xxxxxxx]

> Yup, - I bought a copy of MCE2005 last year, - not *only* because
> it's the best value version to buy (ISTR it cost me about
> £70ish), but I did actually want it for a MCE machine...
>

Excellent, thats the answer I wanted to hear :)

> However, what I can tell you is that if you don't want to use the
> MCE features, then you can just regard it in all senses as XP
> Pro. - It will work with all the same drivers etc as regular XP
> Pro. The additional HCL requirements listed for MCE are just for
> the MCE environment, which is *very* fussy about certain drivers
> (mainly graphics card). If you never intend to fire up the MCE
> interface, then just ignore all those requiremtents and build a
> machine just as you would for any other version of XP.
>

It would be nice to try a Media Centre machine but non of my machines are
really up to the task, besides which I have Tivo and SKY+ (both of which
have nothing left to view because of the World Cup!)

> I have even installed and run MCE2005 in a virtual machine, -
> works absolutely perfectly *until* I fire up the MCE interface, -
> when I just get a blank screen and a bunch of error messages...
>

I DEFINATELY wont be going down that route.
The machines in question are a 1.3 Duron and a 1.6 Athlon

> Incidentally, I know you're not concerned about domain
> membership, but it's actuall a fallacy the MCE can't join a
> domain... - the option is there during the OS install to join a
> domain, - just as it is in all other XP Versions... - what
> *isn't* there is the option to join/change domain membership
> after the OS is installed, - and even then, all MS have done is
> remove the GUI elements that give you access to those features. I
> have seen at least 2 different workarounds to this so that MCE
> *can* change domain membership as freely as any other version of XP...
>

I did see a couple of articles relating to that but I dont have a domain
anyway!

Thanks

Keith