Questions about XP Pro vs. XP Media Edition/XP Home Edition

Hi,

I'm a graphic designer currently using Windows XP Media Edition on a Gateway
PC with an AMD 64bit (4200) processor. I am told that my computer will run
faster/better/more efficiently with XP professional since it's designed for
the dial core processors. My computer seems to run fine except there's
occasional "lag" when mousing, especially when running multiple programs like
Photoshop and Illustrator. I have 'bout a gig of memory and plan to get
more. My questions to you folks:

What benefits if any will I see by upgrading to XP Pro?
Will I have to reformat my Hard disk or can I install XP over my currant OS,
thus keeping my settings, programs, etc?
How about drivers. How much difficulty there?
Will I lose my Windows Media capabilities? (I rarely use the Media center
however).
Any other issues that I should be aware of?

Thanks in advance for the help!!

Best,

Greg

 

1) This is the 64 bit OS newsgroup, and neither standard XP Pro, nor XP
Media Center are 64 bit.
2) Are you sure your MCE is on XP HOME? I believe the default is for Media
Center to be installed on XP Pro.

 

Transitioning from WinXP MCE to WinXP Pro is a _downgrade_.

WinXP Media Center Edition is a _superset_ (iow, it does
_everything_ WinXP Pro can do (except join a domain), plus contains
additional multi-media features) of WinXP Pro.

Windows XP Media Center Edition Home
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ehome/default.asp


--

Bruce Chambers

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The first MCE was built on Pro but MCE 2005 is built on Home.

 

Try microsoft.public.windowsxp.general. This ng is for 64bit operating
systems.

 

Not exactly - there has been much debate over this but - especially
in some of the MS marketing materials. MCE 2005 is more Pro than
home. However, since this is an x64 group --

--

Barb Bowman
MS Windows-MVP
Expert Zone & Vista Community Columnist
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http://blogs.digitalmediaphile.com/barb/

 

Right, but let me rephrase my original: What benefit(s) would I realize by
changing over to a 64bit operating system? When I get info on my OS it says
Windows XP - Professional (5.1.2600) and the processor is an AMD Athalon
64x2 Dual Core Processor 4200. So I think my version of Windows is 32bit and
I wondering if I'll get better performance with Windows Pro 64bit?

Thanks,

Greg

 

You'll probably see marginally better performance from the 64-bit OS,
assuming that you have no trouble finding 64-bit device drivers for all
of your peripherals, but it won't be a great gain, as there are still so
very few 64-bit applications to further leverage the hardware's (and
operating system's) capabilities.


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:
http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. -Bertrum Russell

 

The hardware is no reason to use x64. Your applications are. Without
knowing what problems you are running into running some of your apps it is
hard to say what advantage there might be to using x64. Unless you are
using apps that are bumping the 2GB x86 boundary I see little to gain from
x64. Remember, x64 is not an upgrade to x86, it is an alternative for those
needing much greater resources for something they have been doing and x86 is
not able to give it to them.