xp media center (again)

[gtoforce]

hey guys i have some questions on media center cuz my parents are eager in buying this for the home pc's (3 of them)

before that, i did sent an email to microsoft but yet to get any replies so here i come...

1) i found out it require some sort of receiver (infrared or wireless) for the remote control and that wireless keyboard (from Microsoft which costs around $80) and mouse are recommended for this stuff. is it true?

2) is it true that xp media center does not allow file or printer sharing and those that affiliated with networking?

3) and can just a normal pc runs windows xp media center? 2 of the motherboards support nforce 4 while the other an ati xpress 200 (rd480)
and all have 1024 mb of corsair xms ram

4) can i play networking games (like bf2) on it normally like windows xp pro

can anyone suggest?

[Slumpy]

1) It dosnt require the reciever if you buy the remote it comes with it ne ways and you can use any wireless keyboard and mouse you want.
2) not true MCE is built on XP pro so you get all the same networking options.
3) and 4) Yes

[Snowcone]

MCE is just XP Pro with a few extra bells and whistles.

The only reason I have it installed is for the Energy Blue theme, I just disabled all the other stuff.

[NotMyBest2Day]

Yeah, XP is 2k with a facelift and extra baggage. MCE is a minor touch-up to the facelift, and even more useless extra baggage. What I call extra baggage are services that aren't even really needed, but are running and take vital processing power and memory from other tasks. The most useless service is "Themes" Ugh.

Yeah, I'm anti-XP, and you better believe I'm very much anti-Vista. :p

[stlouis1]

media center does have compatibility issues with some applications that the regular home and pro dont. if u dont need the media center features, dont get it

[Snowcone]

MCE can use just about all of the same stuff as XP.

It IS XP Pro.

Just add/remove windows components to suit your needs.

[stlouis1]

MCE can use just about all of the same stuff as XP
exactly, i've had enough calls on programs that worked in xp but not mce to avoid it if i dont need it