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Vista Media Centre software
this thread has 15 replies and has been viewed 1894 times
Basicaly Vista home/Premium is the same as XP home/MCE 2005 (strangled XP Pro). Does not support joining a domain and other various cool networking things. NB because MCE 2005 was based on XP Pro, they just disabled some things like being able to join a domain. XP home also had a workgroup size restriction of about 5 (or 8)...
Vista business/Ultimate allows for more network control, can join a domain, cna have bigger workgroups and of couse Ultimate has MCE in it. The best of both worlds.
That is how I see thing's and why M$ charge you more IMHO.
however, microsoft's "anytime upgrade" service doesn't work in australia...so if it does turn out he does need it, then its hard/expensive to upgrade...
i would suggest to get Ultimate...mainly for the Remote Desktop functionality, which Home Premium doesn't have.
however, microsoft's "anytime upgrade" service doesn't work in australia.
That's odd, because it is available in New Zealand.
MS have recently changed the program so that it is sold through the retails channel only as an Anytime Upgrade Pack. There's four packs available, Business->Ultimate, Basic->Ultimate, Basic->Premium and Premium->Ultimate.
Unless you need all the networking stuff get Home Premium. Why pay for what you do not need?
Three questions:
1) While I appreciate a remote desktop option is handy, can similar access be obtained using a prgram like VNC or not? Works well in XP. It also seems a bit of a waste of $150 or thereabouts, to get a multitude of options but only really need to use one of them.
2) I heard (rumour) that one should purchase Ultimate as opposed to Premuim as Ultimate contained codecs or similar software that permitted viewing of terrestrial H.264 TV and possibly high def also, where as Premium did not? Truth, some truth or falicy?
3) I'm deciding whether to buy a retail version or OEM version of Vista Ultimate or Premium. I was told that when upgrading hardware and using a previously registered version of Vista, was not really possible with OEM software but retail software stood a far better chance. Obviously M$ and their registration process would have something to do with this, if it were the case. I also see OEM software is far more popular than retail/boxed versions. Has anyone done major hardware upgrades with Vista and had issues registering their previously used O/S with M$ ??
1) While I appreciate a remote desktop option is handy, can similar access be obtained using a prgram like VNC or not? Works well in XP. It also seems a bit of a waste of $150 or thereabouts, to get a multitude of options but only really need to use one of them.
2) I heard (rumour) that one should purchase Ultimate as opposed to Premuim as Ultimate contained codecs or similar software that permitted viewing of terrestrial H.264 TV and possibly high def also, where as Premium did not? Truth, some truth or falicy?
3) I'm deciding whether to buy a retail version or OEM version of Vista Ultimate or Premium. I was told that when upgrading hardware and using a previously registered version of Vista, was not really possible with OEM software but retail software stood a far better chance. Obviously M$ and their registration process would have something to do with this, if it were the case. I also see OEM software is far more popular than retail/boxed versions. Has anyone done major hardware upgrades with Vista and had issues registering their previously used O/S with M$ ??
Thanks in advance.
Can't really answer 1 for you.
As far as 2 goes in my limited knowledge there is no microsoft (MCE) support in premium or ultimate at this stage. I believe it is on the cards in a future update and it may be an become an ultimate only thing but I don't really know.
3 - I can tell you that I had a retail copy of ultimate installed on a computer. Removed it from that computer and installed it on a completely different one. I tried to validate it online but that did not work. I got an error saying it was already registered. However when I rang Microsoft they were quite happy to give me a new validation code. I don't think that would have been the case with an OEM version. The big question I suppose is what part of a PC is the OEM related too? I imagine you could upgrade a HDD or graphics card but possibly not a motherboard.
Re: Vista Media Centre software
