Why does a MS WinXp Media Center want XP Pro ?

NYJimbo

NYJimbo

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I rarely have to work on "MS Win Xp Media Center 2005" machines that need to run something like SFC to grab files but I have one now that needs the CD and wants "MS Win Xp Pro Service Pack 3 CD".

The MS COA says its a "MS Win Xp Media Center 2005" but in the system setting in the control panel it claims "MS Win Xp Media Center 2002 Service pack 3" install.

It wont take a "MS Win Xp Media Center 2005 with SP2" disk and doesnt like a "MS Win Xp SP3" cd so what am I missing?.

Why does a 2005 media center install become 2002 ?. Is that because it has SP3 ?. Seems like thats what happens when you do a SP3 update on a Win XP system.

I found this MS support article:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/897128/

but it seems to be about wanting an XP Pro disk when you have just XP, nothing about Media Center 2005.

Anybody been through this before ? I dont want to feed it a XP pro SP3 disk and corrupt it, but I dont really know what it wants. I do have a XP Pro SP3 VOLUME LICENSE CD but not sure if the fact its a "volume license" disk will affect it at all, as its just for SFC not a fresh install.
 
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XP Media centre

Hello,

Dell machines with media centre on for Xp have it all on one CD... but I do know what you mean... I have had some machines in the past ask for CD 2 etc...

I guess there must be two different versions of media centre... sort of a slim down version and a bumper version?

Anyone shed any light?
 
Never had this problem before but Media Center Edition 2002 was actually XP Pro with the media options added in. Then I believe the 2004 and 2005 versions based themselves off of XP Home Edition. So if the control panel says it's 2002 edition then that's probably why it's calling for XP Pro. But the thing that gets me is the COA label on the computer says 2005 so that throws that out. I'm looking for the link on the breakdown of versions. I'll post it when I find it.
 
Is sfc OS specific or SP specific? That is the question I would like an answer to. If it's SP specific I believe you would be able to keep the I386 folders on your flash drive, write a script to copy it to c:\I386 or whatever the root is, then update the install source registry key to point to c:\I386, then run sfc /scannow. There is an excellent article at: http://www.updatexp.com/scannow-sfc.html Which explains why you may be having problems.
 
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topshelfpc said:
Is sfc OS specific or SP specific? That is the question I would like an answer to. If it's SP specific I believe you would be able to keep the I386 folders on your flash drive, write a script to copy it to c:\I386 or whatever the root is, then update the install source registry key to point to c:\I386, then run sfc /scannow. There is an excellent article at: http://www.updatexp.com/scannow-sfc.html Which explains why you may be having problems.
Click to expand...

Oh believe me that's the first article I read. Its just so annoying that you cannot find alot of solid answers to what are prettu simple questions about all of this. I decided to throw the MS Win XP pro VL disk in and the machine still didnt like it, but it didnt say why. I am starting to think its something else. I am getting a XP Pro OEM disk from a friend in the morning but I dont think it will like it either. I have done all the tweaks, edit, tricks and so on that I found out there and still no go. I got a few more days to play with it so something might pop up that gives me more of a clue.
 
I understand XP-Media centre to be based on Pro not Home is why.

Probably a message that wasn't translated to media centre when they rushed it out.

As regards to the question of SFC and service packs, it is asking for trouble to use an older service pack version than the target machine. The whole purpose of service packs compared to updates is to replace whole subsections of the core system files. All you will get is a string of queries

'the file you are trying to update is newer than the replacement do you want to continue?'
 
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Guys just install xp pro and use the media center key from the computer. Media center is just xp pro anyway bundled with the stupid media center app. I doubt your customer uses the media center app anyway.
 
Noooooo do not feed it Pro CD. it will mess up in the middle , and then you will not be able to fix it.
I have been thru this before and i did the mistake of putting the XP PRO CD.

i was like wth why does it need pro, i check the properties and everything and for a moment i thought it was not a genuine copy of windows.

my situation was different thu, my client HDD crashed and he didn't have the CD. so i cloned the old hdd to the new one. Once that was done! i removed sp3 and then reinstall it manually and that worked like a charm.

hope this help a bit
 
i2omani said:
Noooooo do not feed it Pro CD. it will mess up in the middle , and then you will not be able to fix it.
I have been thru this before and i did the mistake of putting the XP PRO CD.

i was like wth why does it need pro, i check the properties and everything and for a moment i thought it was not a genuine copy of windows.

my situation was different thu, my client HDD crashed and he didn't have the CD. so i cloned the old hdd to the new one. Once that was done! i removed sp3 and then reinstall it manually and that worked like a charm.

hope this help a bit
Click to expand...

Don't worry, it refused EVERYTHING:

Win XP w /sp3
Win XP SP3 cd
Win XP Pro w/ sp3
Win MCE 2005 w/ sp3

Fortunatly I fixed the actual problem and didnt need to do the SFC, but I cloned the drive before the fix and am going to beat the **** out of it until I find out why its rejecting everything. I am convinced its a corrupt install and the "give me XP Pro SP3" is a "false positive" and it wont eat anything.
 
Media Center Edition retains most of the features included in Windows XP Professional as it is simply an addon 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.
 
Have you tried copying the i386 folder on the CD to C:\i386 and editing the registry to reflect the change?
Code: 
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup >SourcePath


EDIT: You might also check the PID in the registry and compare it to the PID on the CDs ( [CD Drive]:\i386\SETUPP.INI )
Code: 
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion >ProductID

List of PIDs
 
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rusty.nells said:
Have you tried copying the i386 folder on the CD to C:\i386 and editing the registry to reflect the change?
Code: 
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup >SourcePath


EDIT: You might also check the PID in the registry and compare it to the PID on the CDs ( [CD Drive]:\i386\SETUPP.INI )
Code: 
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion >ProductID

List of PIDs
Click to expand...

Oh year, I played around with all of that including some file edits that MS recommended.
 
When it comes to SFC /scannow does it matter if you use a retail disc vs an oem disc? Assuming the right SP is included in the disc. For example, can I use xp SP3 Home Retail disc if the PC has the Home OEM version installed?
 
topshelfpc said:
When it comes to SFC /scannow does it matter if you use a retail disc vs an oem disc? Assuming the right SP is included in the disc. For example, can I use xp SP3 Home Retail disc if the PC has the Home OEM version installed?
Click to expand...

I spent alot of time googling this and never got a real straight answer. In theory any XP or XP Pro disk with the same patch level should work, but maybe not. I keep getting responses like "You cannot use a VLK disk with a OEM, because of the license type". Ok, but is that only during install or does SFC do something to the VLK,OEM,RET,etc.. stuff when doing SFC ?. I still dont know for sure, however I have used an OEM disk on a RET machine many times, but that was in the past for Win95 and XP, not more recent stuff.
 
Bear in mind with SFC that you don't have to use a disk at all, you can copy the business part to hard drive or a non bootable CD or pendrive etc and point SFC there.
At one time it used to be common practice to have the windows cd copied to hard drive for this purpose.
 
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