Windows XP Embedded

[lucindrea]

ok i was looking around the net and ran accross this
http://msdn.microsoft.com/embedded/

basicly this is whats used ( ok most use a CE version ) in cash registers , those booths that you can convert digital camera cards to real photos in stores , etc .. the idea is that you can take an os ( XP in this case ) and strip out all the user interface , this includeds the desktop ( explorer.exe ) , mouse , kb , etc etc .. but you leave all the dll's and directx stuff in , then you add your custom interface , in our case it would be a front end ...

anyway i thought this would be cool in a cab .. problem is that it takes an expert in programing and a hefty licence to M$ ... but it was a nice thought.

[rchadd]

why bother?

setup mamewah to run on startup and shutdown when exit mamewah

also setup in power settings that pc power switch shutsdown windows

disable windows services that are not required.

must admit i would like windows to startup much quicker

[lucindrea]

oh i know , it's alot of effort for not much in return .. like i said , a nice thought but not worth it ... what i was liking is the fact that thet the os has only the drivers you need and NOTHING else ( normal windows has drivers for stuff that no one except maby one guy in germany has ) xp supports somthing kile 9500 pices of hardware , but i only need my os to load up maby 20

turns out bally uses this thing in their video poker games .. hehe figures.

[DrewKaree]

how about using Black Viper's site to strip out everything you don't need, then checking out www.98lite.net to get IEradicator to rip out IE.  That may come close to what you're talking about.  If you want to rip out even more, use XP Lite, but I haven't delved into that yet, so you're on your own with that.

[Silver]

If you really want to strip down xp, have a look at nLite:

http://nuhi.msfn.org/

It rebuilds the xp installation disc stripping out almost everything under your control.

XPEmbedded is not worth the hassle for a cab, and won't be faster than a tuned/stripped xp installation.

Its only worth it if you are after specific features - I spent *ages* trying to get an embedded build to install on a Via Mini-ITX board (using Via's own XP embedded configuration) and it would always refuse to install.  Embedded has a "No disk write" feature which enables you to install XP onto a read-only device, which is what I was after. I'd love someone to tell me where I went wrong....

[Howard_Casto]

Umm guys.... You can replace the gui in xp with a simple user setting in the account. Essentially, this "embedded" xp does exactly the same thing.  The only difference is the embedded version won't allow you to startup explorer on the fly and thus it isn't a good idea.