Home & Professional The first two editions released by Microsoft are Windows XP Home Edition, designed for home users, and Windows XP Professional, designed for business and
power users. Windows XP Professional offers a number of features unavailable in the Home Edition, including: • The ability to become part of a
Windows Server domain, a group of computers that are remotely managed by one or more central servers. • An
access control scheme that allows specific permissions on files to be granted to specific users under normal circumstances. However, users can use tools other than Windows Explorer (like
cacls or
File Manager), or restart to
Safe Mode to modify access control lists. •
Remote Desktop server, which allows a PC to be operated by another Windows XP user over a
local area network or the Internet. • Offline Files and Folders, which allow the PC to automatically store a copy of files from another networked computer and work with them while disconnected from the network. •
Encrypting File System, which encrypts files stored on the computer's hard drive so they cannot be read by another user, even with physical access to the storage medium. • Centralized administration features, including
Group Policies, Automatic Software Installation and Maintenance,
Roaming User Profiles, and
Remote Installation Services (RIS). •
Internet Information Services (IIS), Microsoft's HTTP and FTP Server. • Support for two physical
central processing units (CPUs). (Because the
number of CPU cores and
simultaneous multithreading capabilities on modern CPUs are considered to be part of a single physical processor, multi-core CPUs are supported using XP Home Edition.) •
Windows Management Instrumentation Console (WMIC): WMIC is a command-line tool designed to ease WMI information retrieval about a system by using simple keywords (aliases). • The ability to switch hard disk storage type from Basic to Dynamic and vice versa.
Edition N In March 2004, the
European Commission fined Microsoft
€497 million (
£395 million or
$784 million) and ordered the company to provide a version of Windows without
Windows Media Player. The Commission concluded that Microsoft "broke
European Union competition law by leveraging its near
monopoly in the market for PC operating systems onto the markets for work group
server operating systems and for media players". After unsuccessful appeals in 2004 and 2005, Microsoft reached an agreement with the Commission where it would release a court-compliant version, Windows XP
Edition N. This version does not include the company's Windows Media Player but instead encourages users to pick and download their own media player. Microsoft wanted to call this version
Reduced Media Edition, but EU regulators objected and suggested the
Edition N name, with the
N signifying "not with Media Player" for both Home and Professional editions of Windows XP. Because it is sold at the same price as the version with Windows Media Player included,
Dell,
Hewlett-Packard,
Lenovo and
Fujitsu Siemens have chosen not to stock the product. However, Dell did offer the operating system for a short time. Consumer interest has been low, with roughly 1,500 units shipped to
OEMs, and no reported sales to consumers. The N editions of Windows XP also do not include
Windows Movie Maker, but Microsoft has made this available as a separate download.
K & KN In December 2005, the
Korean Fair Trade Commission ordered Microsoft to make available editions of Windows XP and
Windows Server 2003 that do not contain
Windows Media Player or
Windows Messenger. Like the European Commission decision, this decision was based on the grounds that Microsoft had abused its dominant position in the market to push other products onto consumers. Unlike that decision, however, Microsoft was also forced to withdraw the non-compliant versions of Windows from the South Korean market. The K and KN editions of Windows XP Home Edition and Professional Edition were released in August 2006, and are only available in English and Korean. Both editions contain links to third-party
instant messenger and
media player software.
Home Edition ULCPC This edition of Windows XP Home is intended for sale with certain "low-cost"
netbooks and will appear labeled as "Windows XP Home Edition ULCPC" on the back of the netbook (with "ULCPC" standing for "
ultra-low-cost personal computer"). This edition contains a regular license of Windows XP Home Edition with Service Pack 3 included.
Professional Blade PC Edition This version comes preinstalled on OEM solutions providing desktops on
Blade PC hardware. In addition to a copy of Windows XP Professional, it includes a Remote Desktop License.
Starter edition Windows XP Starter is a lower-cost version of Windows XP available in Thailand, Vietnam, Turkey, Indonesia, India, Philippines, Russia, Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Mexico, Ecuador, Uruguay, Malaysia, and Venezuela. It is similar to Windows XP Home, but is limited to low-end hardware, can only run 3 programs at a time, and has some other features either removed or disabled by default. According to a
Microsoft press release, Windows XP Starter is "a low-cost introduction to the Microsoft Windows XP operating system designed for first-time desktop PC users in
developing countries."
Specialization The Starter edition includes some special features for certain markets where consumers may not be
computer literate. Not found in the Home Edition, these include
localized help features for those who may not speak English, a country-specific computer wallpapers and
screensavers, and other default settings designed for easier use than typical Windows XP installations. One such setting is both the desktop icons and the mouse cursor size are set to large to assist new computer users. In addition, the Starter edition also has some unique limitations to prevent it from displacing more expensive versions of Windows XP: • Only three applications can be run at once on the Starter edition, and each application may open a maximum of three windows. If a user tried to open more, a dialog message box would pop up reminding them of this limitation. This also helped the computer from getting overloaded with lots of open windows and programs as Windows XP Starter is licensed only for low-end processors like Intel's
Celeron or AMD's
Duron and
Sempron. • There is a 512 MB limit on main memory and a 120 GB disk size limit. • There is no support for multiple user accounts. Windows Setup creates a user account automatically. • There is no support for securing the user account with a password. Upon machine startup, Windows XP Starter will auto logon. • PC-PC networking, joining a domain, and sharing printers across a network is not supported. • Classic view in the control panel is not supported. • Only one wallpaper is included by default, but localized versions contained more wallpapers and screensavers related to the locale. The Malaysian version, for example, contains a desktop background of the
Kuala Lumpur skyline. • There are fewer options for customizing the themes, desktop, and
taskbar. It notably does not ship with the Luna theme enabled and the only theme available is the Windows Classic theme. The file is, however, present and can be activated by changing registry settings. • To remind users that they are using Windows XP Starter, there is a persistent watermark in the lower right hand corner of the screen that is visible at all times. This watermark is similar in behavior to the Windows activation watermark in
Windows 10.
Market adoption On October 9, 2006, Microsoft announced that they reached a milestone of 1 million units of Windows XP Starter sold. In the mass market, however, the Starter edition has not had much success. In many markets where it is available,
pirated versions of higher end versions of Windows are more popular than their legal counterparts. In these markets, non-genuine copies of XP Professional can be obtained at a mall. These stores typically charge only for the amount of the CDs/DVDs taken up by the files, not the original retail value. Unlicensed copies of Windows XP Professional typically cost 70¢, since it only uses 1 CD, compared to around $30 for a properly licensed copy of XP Starter.
Media Center Edition This edition, which was code-named "Freestyle" during its development, was first released in September 2002. The initial release was available solely in conjunction with computers that included media center capabilities, and could not be purchased separately. The first major update was released in 2004 and distributed by Tier 1 OEMs who had previously sold
Windows XP Media Center Edition PC, and then updated again in 2005, which was the first edition available for
System Builders. Many of the features of Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 (including screen dancers, auto playlist DJ, and high end visual screen savers) were taken from the
Windows XP Plus! packages. These were originally shipped as add-ons to Windows XP to enhance the users experience of their Windows XP machine.
Releases A preview version of
Windows XP Media Center Edition from Microsoft's eHome division, was shown as CES 2002, with the final version released in July 2002. •
Windows XP Media Center Edition ("Freestyle", July 2002) This was the original release. Updates to this release added features such as FM radio tuning. This release combined with updates is sometimes referred to as
Windows XP Media Center Edition 2003. •
Windows XP Media Center Edition 2004 ("Harmony", September 2003) Windows XP Service Pack 2 upgrades earlier versions of MCE to this one. •
Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 ("Symphony", October 2004) is the first edition of MCE available to non-Tier 1 system builders. Among other things it includes support for Media Center Extenders, and CD/DVD-Video burning support. •
Update Rollup 2 for Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 ("Emerald", October 2005) is a major update to MCE 2005 (Symphony) and was a recommended download. It adds support for the
Xbox 360 as a media center extender,
DVB-T broadcasts, and support for two
ATSC tuner cards. After the 2005 release, Microsoft focused their efforts on building new media center features into "Home Premium" and "Ultimate" editions of
Windows Vista and
Windows 7, which have
Windows Media Center built-in and, unlike the releases of Windows XP Media Center Edition, were available for retail purchase without the necessary hardware.
Features The most notable feature unique to this edition is the Windows Media Center, which provides a large-font, remotely accessible interface ("
10-foot user interface") for
television viewing on the computer as well as recording and playback, a TV guide,
DVD playback, video playback, photo viewing, and music playback. Unlike competing commercial
digital video recorder products, Microsoft does not charge a monthly subscription fee for its Media Center TV guide service. Due to strict hardware requirements, Microsoft did not sell Media Center Edition in retail markets alongside the Home and Professional editions. Microsoft only distributes it to
MSDN subscribers and
OEM System Builders in certain countries. Consumers generally purchase Media Center pre-installed on a new computer, or from a reseller that sells OEM versions of Microsoft software. Media Center Edition was the only consumer-oriented edition of Windows XP that was updated with new features on an annual basis during the five-year
development of Windows Vista. The MCE 2005 release, for example, includes an update to
Windows Movie Maker that supports burning DVDs, a new visual style called "
Royale", support for
Media Center Extenders, and SoundSpectrum's G-Force sound visualizations. Microsoft also released its own
remote control, receiver and
infrared blaster with MCE 2005. A new specially designed wireless
computer keyboard for MCE 2005 was released September 2005. Using
Media Center Extenders or the
Xbox 360, Media Center Edition is also able to connect and stream recorded TV, music and pictures, over a network connection. Media Center Edition retains most of the features included in Windows XP Professional as it is simply an add-on to Professional, installed when provided with a valid MCE
product key during setup. All Professional features have been left in, including
Remote Desktop and the
Encrypting File System, however the ability to join an
Active Directory domain has been removed as it is marketed as a home product with no need for domain support. One value in the registry is all that is needed to circumvent this restriction; if the installation of MCE 2005 is an in-place upgrade from a previous version already joined to a domain, this ability is retained, unless a user uses a Windows Media Center Extender: in this case, such ability is lost and cannot be restored. Presumably, Microsoft introduced this limit because Media Center Extender devices, introduced in this version, rely on the
Fast User Switching component, but this component must be disabled in order to join a domain.
Hardware requirements Media Center has higher hardware requirements than other editions of Windows XP. MCE 2005 requires at least a 1.6 GHz processor,
DirectX 9.0 hardware-accelerated
GPU (ATI
Radeon 9000 series or Nvidia
GeForce FX series or higher), and 256 MB of system
RAM. Some functionality, such as Media Center Extender support, use of multiple tuners, or
HDTV playback/recording carries higher system requirements. Media Center is much more restricted in the range of hardware that it supports than most other software
DVR solutions. Media Center tuners must have a standardized driver interface, and they (originally) required a hardware
MPEG-2 encoder,
closed caption support, and a number of other features. Media Center remote controls are standardized in terms of button labels and functionality, and, to a degree, general layout.
Tablet PC Edition This edition is intended for specially designed notebook/laptop computers called
tablet PCs. Windows XP Tablet PC Edition is compatible with a pen-sensitive screen, supporting handwritten notes and portrait-oriented screens. Except for
MSDN and Volume License subscribers, Windows XP Tablet Edition could not be purchased separately. Tablet PC Edition is a superset of Windows XP Professional, the difference being tablet functionality, including alternate text input (Tablet PC Input Panel) and basic drivers for support of tablet PC specific hardware. Requirements to install Tablet PC Edition include a tablet digitizer or touchscreen device, and hardware control buttons including a
Ctrl-Alt-Delete shortcut button, scrolling buttons, and at least one user-configurable application button. There have been two releases: • Windows XP Tablet PC Edition – The original version released in November 2002. • Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005 – The Tablet PC version released in August 2004 (codenamed
Lonestar) as part of Windows XP Service Pack 2. The 2005 edition is available as a service pack upgrade, or as a new
OEM version. Service Pack 2 for Windows XP includes Tablet PC Edition 2005 and is a free upgrade. This version brought improved handwriting recognition and improved the Input Panel, allowing it to be used in almost every application. The Input Panel was also revised to extend
speech recognition services (input and correction) to other applications.
Included software tablet PC running Windows XP Tablet PC Edition and Energy Blue Theme Windows XP Tablet PC Edition is based on Windows XP Professional and includes all the software features provided in it. In addition, it includes some of the following components: • Tablet PC Input Panel •
Windows Journal • Sticky Notes •
InkBall •
Energy Blue theme The following downloadable packs released by Microsoft add more functionality: • Microsoft Experience Pack for Tablet PC • Ink Art • Ink Crossword • Ink Desktop • Media Transfer • Snipping Tool 2.0 • Microsoft Education Pack for Tablet PC • Ink Flash Cards • Equation Writer • GoBinder Lite •
Hexic Deluxe Technology Windows XP Tablet PC Edition utilizes the Ink object as a means of data input and storage. This is a data type created as part of the Windows XP Tablet PC Edition API that allows users to manipulate and process handwritten data, including recognition results and, in some cases, the pressure information for each part of the stroke. Properties of Ink can be changed in much the same way as properties of other objects, and the data can be saved to allow future reference. Many applications referencing the Ink object also allow handwritten notes to be filtered and searched through, based on the recognition results stored when Ink is saved. Integrated with the operating system is a
Tablet PC Input Panel (TIP) which allows handwriting to be converted into text for use in most non-full-screen applications. The integrated handwriting recognition in Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005 can recognize print, cursive, or mixed writing. Accuracy can be increased by configuring the recognizer to expect left-handed writing or right-handed writing. Recognition in a variety of languages is available with the install of a recognizer pack. The handwriting engine cannot be trained to recognize a particular handwriting style, so the user must modify their handwriting to be better recognized by the system in order to use this feature effectively. Speech recognition functionality is also incorporated into the Tablet Input Panel. Compared to previous versions, a substantially improved speech recognition engine version 6 (which also ships with Office 2003) and a tutorial, microphone wizard and training modules are included. It is possible to dictate text using speech in certain supported applications and control the Windows GUI and applications using speech, although the accuracy improvements further made in Windows Vista surpass these features. An update for Windows XP Tablet PC Edition containing Ink Analysis and StylusInput API support introduced in Windows Vista is also available. == Subscription and pre-paid editions ==