Here are some pictures of a Windows XP MCE 2005 install I made today off some old discs I never tried before:

51.6 MB of Ram in use. Later after a reboot it was running at 40 MB to 48 MB of Ram.

Very little on the Start Menu Programs Sub Menu. There is no WMP, IE, or other junk. It does include Media Center though. Also there are no User Account images.

No My Documents listed in Computer.

My Documents doesn't include the usual folders.

Processes

Firefox Installed/Installing Thunderbird (I don't normally use either of them. It is just what I had at the time)

Programs installed. I also installed VLC.

Normal Version 2002 error.

Default save folder is System 32.
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This is the best XP installation I have ever used. It runs great. I installed Drivers for my Network card earlier. And the audio drivers.
I deleted the Media Center off the Start menu and the Games also. I had no need for either.

I am confused. When I installed MCE I got the Luna theme. What is this? Some kind of prerelease?

Did you get this from stores that sells pirated and/or customized Windows XP CDs. I also had similar installation like that but with Luna Theme (XPLite FTW!)

It's a very light customized XP. But the real question is if you can use it as a daily OS (Believe me, I've used some XP's customized like this and I couldn't print or get themes to work. Sometimes they cripple critical things of the OS)

Doesn't it have the Royale interface by default? Or you just didn't insert the second CD during the installation?

This is no stock Windows XP MCE install. It's definitely been nLited or something.

One would question the reasoning for stripping Media Center down that far. It would be possibly be useful for weak HTPCs, but it doesn't look like it has any codecs (albeit old ones) installed and I bet the TV Tuner drivers were removed.

This is just another nLited windows. Take a look at "MicroXP", which is almost identical save for Media Center.

52mb of RAM on first boot, I got it down to 38mb after killing explorer and rebooting a couple times.

This no pre-release. If it was I would be very excited.

I bought it from Tiger Direct a long while back.

Works great. It is really good. Nicest XP I have ever used.

It doesn't have the royale interface/theme by default. Just classic. I did insert the second CD during setup.

As I said I bought it from Tiger Direct.
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I tried installing using only the first CD and it gave me regular XP without all the extra stuff.
BTW this install (The one where I used both CDs) doesn't require me to activate. Cool.
I can't decide whether I got a modified/pirated copy of Windows Media Center 2005 or if I got a really cool mistake.

Can you scan the disk for us? That way we could compare it to the standard WMC disks to see if you did indeed get a pirated copy...

Could you please clarify what you mean by scan? Do mean like make a copy and upload it?

I mean put the physical disk label side down inside a photo\document scanner so we can have an image of the label. The alternative would be to just take a picture and upload it (To the BetaArchive Image Uploader... of course.)

He meant to put the disc in the scanner and scan it, or take a photo

Ok good. I will do that. I can comfirm that it has a regular label but I will do it anyway.
I was thinking that you might have meant that you wanted me to upload it somewhere [Which I wouldn't do even if you had asked me to].

Added: I am uploading at 50 Bytes a second. That's Dial-up in the evening for ya. So I will just upload tomorrow or later tonight perhaps. Plus it is spring break here, so everyone is online. I try again in a bit.

They are terrible quality. If anybody wants me too I can scan them using my scanner but I will have to do it tomorrow.

Case

Disc 1

Disc 2

That's strange!

Looks like a typical "Lite" XP install to me. But what gets me here is the disks..

legitimate looking discs with a stripped down install? nifty. Sounds like it broke something during install.

I don't think this is the product of a broken installation..

Try installing XP and remove the disc once it starts to install networking stuff (GUI phase).
If you skip all the files after that, this is what you get.
No need to nLite, you won't have IE working and a lot of stuff is missing.

Looks exactly like that.

An iso would be nice...

I am going to try installing XP and removing the disk at the networking phase. If it works it sounds pretty bloody interesting.

I installed again to see if something did break during the install but I got the same thing again!


I don't think it would be right for me to upload it. For one, if it is pirated I would be uploading/distributing a pirated version of Windows and second if it is real then I would be uploading an ISO of a real (albeit very different and strange) version of Windows that doesn't have activation and works great.



First, is it stable? and second, does it have activation? I don't see a reason why it wouldn't be stable and usable but I have to ask anyway.


I also will try that out.
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BTW everybody I like (only having) the Classic look/theme. I could never stand XP's look. Although the Royal theme for MCE wasn't too bad.

tried "the remove disk" thing... it works for me!
it seems very crippled,but damn..it's so lightweight!
i confirm it takes just about 40M,like this MCE...
would be nice to know how it goes with daily use, installing applications and stuff...

I would really like to know if this is usable in everyday use. I haven't been able to try it out yet. My MCE install works great. I can install programs, drivers, ect. It is really stable too. Please keep us updated on how it works, bckf. Can't wait to try it myself.