Windows XPe

[hougtimo]

Hi,

I have known about Windows XP Embedded for a while, but only started to look into it recently.

can someone tell me exactly what it is, and is it a viable alternative to a regular XP Pro?

what features does / doesnt it have?

what hardware does it need? / what is the minimum spec hardware it can be used on?

thanks - any info at all is very usefull.

thanks

tim

[cluberti]

XP embedded is a limited version of Windows XP that is meant to be run on dedicated hardware. It is also componentized, meaning that a developer can pick and choose (for the most part) what components to include and not include in their design. Windows XPe is bigger than it's counterpart, WindowsCE, but it has much better driver and application support (as it's truly Windows XP).

This is not something you can go out and purchase - you have to license use of XPe from Microsoft. However, you only have to pay for products you actually sell - test and demo versions of your product using XPe can be used without paying licensing fees for their usage. Also, you can download the evaluation kit and development tools freely from the website, and use them for 120 days before you have to pay for them.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/embedded/howtobuy/default.aspx

If you're building a hardware device that will run Windows, XPe is a pretty good choice - it can even be made into a RTOS (like WindowsCE) with some third-party add-ons.