XP Media Center OEM is 30 Euros cheaper than Professional OEM?

It seems strange that at my local shop XP Media Center OEM is 120 Euros while XP Professional is 150 Euros....

I thought Media Center was Professional with some additional software?

Weird MS pricing policy or is Media Center missing some of Professional's features?

Just saw a comparison of Home and Professional here: http://www.wown.com/articles_tutorials/wxpdifs.html

media cernter is home i thought with the purdy media interface.

Pro just has the extra security feature and administration tools in it.

I popped in the first installation CD (of 2)

and the installer says "Windows XP Professional Setup"

more software for less money weeeee

edit:

I needed to purchase a lot of copies of XP Professional for my parents' company and the only English copies of XP that the shop had was Media Center. I bought one to find out if it is actually Pro with more stuff as I'll need a copy of Media Center myself. This is working out perfectly - a lot of savings as I'll need another 4 copies

edit 2:

I guess we'll find out if it really is Professional with additional stuff once the install finishes

No option for joining a domain

guess Microsoft disabled some of the functionalities of Professional

oh well I guess it makes sense after all

very nice default theme though

what happens if you want windows media centre AND want it on a domain? for example in a staff lounge in a company?

then your SOL

gorilly said:

what happens if you want windows media centre AND want it on a domain? for example in a staff lounge in a company?

Click to expand...

I just reinstalled again and it does seem possible to join a domain, but only during the installation process, assuming you use a network card (or onboard network chip) that is old enough to be recognised by Windows XP SP2.

Once the installation process is complete it becomes impossible to join a domain.

Media Center is based on Professional, but MS somehow hacked some of the functionality out of it.

Here is a free alternative to Media Center,,,,,,,,http://mediaportal.sourceforge.net/