Which XP version for networking?

[Guest]

Is it hard for a novice to get Windows XP MCE onto a small business network?
I have had success with Win XP Professional and failures with Win XP HOME.
Should I just spend the money and get the upgrade to Pro from MCE? or will
MCE be sufficient. Basically I need to know is MCE closer to PRO or closer
to HOME, in terms of networking?

 

[Tom Porterfield]

Is it hard for a novice to get Windows XP MCE onto a small business
network? I have had success with Win XP Professional and failures with
Win XP HOME. Should I just spend the money and get the upgrade to Pro
from MCE? or will MCE be sufficient. Basically I need to know is MCE
closer to PRO or closer to HOME, in terms of networking?

MCE is not able to be joined to a domain after setup. So for a novice, that
might be hard. If your network card is recognized during install, meaning
the drivers are included with MCE, then you can specify and join MCE to a
domain during install of the operating system. If you are purchasing a
system with MCE already installed, then this option won't work for you.

So which is more important, the MCE additions to Windows XP, or the ability
to easily join to a network domain?

 

[John John]

You cannot join MCE to a domain.

John

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Is it hard for a novice to get Windows XP MCE onto a small business
network?
I have had success with Win XP Professional and failures with Win XP HOME.
Should I just spend the money and get the upgrade to Pro from MCE? or will
MCE be sufficient. Basically I need to know is MCE closer to PRO or
closer
to HOME, in terms of networking?

XP MCE is a superset of XP Professional. It has everything in Professional
plus the extra media features, but minus the ability to join a domain.

So the question is what kind of a small business network are you asking
about. If it's a peer-to-peer (workgroup) network, the two are completely
equal. But if it's a domain, then it's not a matter of being hard for a
novice; it's impossible.

 

[G.T.]

XP MCE is a superset of XP Professional. It has everything in Professional
plus the extra media features, but minus the ability to join a domain.

So the question is what kind of a small business network are you asking
about. If it's a peer-to-peer (workgroup) network, the two are completely
equal. But if it's a domain, then it's not a matter of being hard for a
novice; it's impossible.

That's what I thought and I could actually use MCE on our domain at
work. Since I've never installed MCE from scratch is Tom correct or
incorrect that the domain can be set during installation?

Greg

 

[caver1]

That's what I thought and I could actually use MCE on our domain at
work. Since I've never installed MCE from scratch is Tom correct or
incorrect that the domain can be set during installation?

Greg

check this out on setting domain in MCE

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

That's what I thought and I could actually use MCE on our domain at work.
Since I've never installed MCE from scratch is Tom correct or incorrect
that the domain can be set during installation?

Yes, Tom is correct. But ask him for the specifics of how to do it, since
I've never done it myself either.

 

[Tom Porterfield]

That's what I thought and I could actually use MCE on our domain at
work. Since I've never installed MCE from scratch is Tom correct or
incorrect that the domain can be set during installation?

A quick trip over to google.com with the appropriate search terms will show
you that I am correct. There are three ways to get MCE 2005 on a domain.

1) MCE 2004 included support for joining a domain. If you have an MCE 2004
machine already joined to a domain then those settings are retained on an
upgrade to MCE 2005.

2) During a clean install of MCE 2005 if your network card is supported and
setup is able to resolve your domain when you enter that info during setup,
then you can join the MCE 2005 machine to the domain during setup and that
will be retained post-install.

3) Involves hacking of registry files via recovery console. Something I
don't recommend and don't want to even pretend to support by listing the
steps here. If you want to figure out how to do it, again - visit your
favorite search engine as the steps are out there.

Note that the extender functionality in MCE 2005 requires Fast User
Switching to be enabled, which can't be done when joined to a domain. So
you have to decide which you want, the ability to join a domain or the
ability to use an extender.

 

[G.T.]

A quick trip over to google.com with the appropriate search terms will
show you that I am correct. There are three ways to get MCE 2005 on a
domain.

1) MCE 2004 included support for joining a domain. If you have an MCE
2004 machine already joined to a domain then those settings are retained
on an upgrade to MCE 2005.

2) During a clean install of MCE 2005 if your network card is supported
and setup is able to resolve your domain when you enter that info during
setup, then you can join the MCE 2005 machine to the domain during setup
and that will be retained post-install.

3) Involves hacking of registry files via recovery console. Something
I don't recommend and don't want to even pretend to support by listing
the steps here. If you want to figure out how to do it, again - visit
your favorite search engine as the steps are out there.

Note that the extender functionality in MCE 2005 requires Fast User
Switching to be enabled, which can't be done when joined to a domain.
So you have to decide which you want, the ability to join a domain or
the ability to use an extender.

Gotcha. Thanks for the info.

Greg