Inside Windows XP Reduced Media Edition

An anonymous reader writes "Flexbeta.net has got it's take on Windows XP Reduced Media Edition, which is basically Windows XP Pro stripped of its Windows Media Player. To sum it up, there is hardly any noticable difference between XP RME and XP Pro, except for the welcome screen and Windows not recognizing their own file format. The article hints how this may be the beggining to a Windows OS without any Microsoft applications. Bye-bye Internet Explorer?"

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[Anonymous Coward]

Windows XP RME - Where's the beef?
Posted by Team Flexbeta on 12 February 2005 (4063 views) Rating: 5

Page 1 - The Whole Ensalada
What do you get when you strip Windows Media Player from Windows XP? Windows XP Reduced Media Edition. After EU courts ordered Microsoft to remove Windows Media Player from their Windows Operating System, Microsoft fired back by branding the "new" OS with what they believe it now is: a Reduced version of Windows XP. Following the naming of the new OS, the EU filed that Microsoft rename the product. Microsoft is said to have changed the name of the new stripped down OS. A few names which Microsoft may be using could include: Windows XP Shi**tee Edition, Windows XP No Media Player Here Edition, Windows XP The EU Sucks Edition, and Windows XP Buy XP Pro Instead of This Since They Are Both Worth The Same Price Edition.

As was stated here a few days back, there is no huge difference between Windows XP Professional and the Reduced Media Edition. There is no way anyone can look at the mere desktop and deduce that they are using the Reduced Media Edition. Microsoft has bundled Service Pack 2, which includes the Windows Security Center. Again, exploring the control panel, we see the usual suspects including Windows Firewall and a few others. The only indication that a user is using Windows XP RME is during the welcome screen after the OS is installed. The welcome screen clearly reads: "This reduced media version of Windows XP includes standard Windows functionality, with the exception of certain Windows multimedia technologies." Also, peeping into the system properties, the system is labeled, Reduced Media Edition and clearly states that the system is at the Service Pack 2 level.

So what exactly is missing?
Well, for one, users can't play any .WMA files. Windows doesn't recognize its all file format, and prompts the user to use the web to find the appropriate application which will play the file. In addition, since there is no media player of any kind in this version of Windows, you can't play any type of music or video media. This means I couldn't push myself to get some satisfaction (Benny Benassi). After choosing to connect to the Internet to find such a program, the Microsoft website indicated how the user can open this "unknown" file by either using Windows Media Player or Nullsoft Winamp. So I decided to download and install Windows Media Player 10.

And with 12MB, I turned the Reduced Media Player into a fully working Windows XP Professional Edition; and it was good. Well, not exactly. Microsoft was ordered to remove more than just Windows Media Player from the OS; the EU decision required Microsoft to remove a total of 186 files. You can read more on Microsoft's Implementation of European Commission Decision here.

So how does the end user benefit from this decision? In my opinion, they don't. PC makers ultimately rejected the ripped OS and if given the choice between "Windows XP with Media Player" and "Windows XP Without Media Player", it's probably left to how much a user hates Microsoft. In other words, some users complain how they dislike Windows Media Player and others aren't really bothered. The majority of users however enjoy the functionality of Windows Media Player. There is no real benefit from this whole Reduced Media Player fiasco, since it doesn't really change much from the original OS. Or maybe this is the beginning to a Windows OS free of Microsoft applications. What next, a Windows XP Without Internet Explorer?