XP Media Edition 2005 versus XP Pro

[chris18]

I have just ordered a bare bones base unit system using an AMD 64 BIT X2 DUAL CORE CPU.

The unit does not come with any OS so I need to order one as my existing system, using XP Pro will replace my wife's old setup and hers will pass to one of the grandchildren.

A friend told me to install XP Media Centre edition as this incorporated XP Pro.

However, talking to the company I purchased the base unit from they have told me that XP Media Centre Edition is in fact a completely separate OS from XP Home or XP Pro, hence it's lower price.

Looking at the Windows XP Media Centre Edition 2005 Home Page it seems it is very much geared, as to be expected from it's name, to multi media tasks most of which are currently catered for by my existing installed software in some way. It also has My TV and My Radio which aren't of interest to me.

It also says "Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 lets you do everything other Windows XP PCs do". This seems to be slightly at odds with what the firm told me because they said that whilst they thought most existing XP software would run, they couldn't guarantee it. Also, they were hesitant to say that existing XP drivers would be compatible with Media Edition.

In the light of this I decided to defer my purchase until I had got more info.

Could someone explain if Media Edition will allow me to continue to use my existing XP software/hardware and operate my new PC much the same as I do now but with a few extra "niceties" or should I opt for XP Pro?



Thanks