Migrating From Windows XP Media Center Edition to Vista

Migrating From Windows XP Media Center Edition to Vista

Follow the directions contained within these sacred scrolls to avoid complications during your Media Center Edition upgrade.

You might think migrating from Windows XP Media Center Edition to Windows Vista should be as simple as migrating a generic version of Windows XP. But the ways that people make use of Media Center Edition can make the moving process a little hard to complete. So, well cover some of the potential pitfalls of upgrading a Windows XP Media Center Edition installation to Microsoft's new operating system Vista and show you a few moves so you won't be happen to tumble into any of them.

Of the four most used versions of Vista - Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, and Ultimate - the only two that support the same feature set as Windows XP Media Center Edition are Home Premium and Ultimate, this is the one were running right now.

One of the trickiest things that people often stumble over at this time is which version of Microsoft Vista to purchase? The easy short answer for most users will be Windows Home Premium, which contains the vast majority of capabilities people use in Windows XP Media Center Edition. Vista Ultimate is also an option, but the differences between Ultimate and Home Premium probably won't matter for the most users. The majority of users migrating from Windows XP MCE can make do with Vista Home Premium without worrying.

There are also four different editions of Windows XP MCE itself; the 2003 edition (no longer directly supported by Microsoft), the 2004 edition, the 2005 edition, and the 2005 Update Rollup. Microsoft added new features with each successive edition, with the 2005 version being the one most commonly available to system builders and consumers. As far as upgrading is concerned, these editions are all pretty much the same product, for one simple reason: A user is best served by installing Vista clean instead of attempting to upgrade an existing Windows XP MCE installation. Upgrading is a bit more work - you have to back up data and applications settings, and reinstall apps afterwards, which we'll cover shortly - but it also eliminates a great many of the things that can go wrong during an upgrade.

Consequently, if you are using a version of MCE that's not up to date and you're questioning whether you should update it before upgrading, it's perhaps doesn't merit the attempt because you'll be wiping everything clean anyway. One should only do an installation of Vista if they have absolutely no choice - for instance, if you have software on the system for which you cannot find the original installation media.

Haven't yet determined if Vista will like your system's hardware and applications, not a problem, just use the Vista Upgrade Advisor to determine this. Insert the Vista install DVD into the computer to be upgraded and click the Check Compatibility Online button that appears, and you'll be transported magically to the page where you can download the Microsoft Advisor program (note that .NET Framework 2.0 is required). Load it and you'll be given a breakdown of how your applications, hardware devices, and system configuration will operate under Vista.

Any Microsoft hardware, such as the Media Center Extender, should be supported natively by Vista, but pay close attention to devices in many media PCs that don't have Vista drivers out of the box. Memory card adapters, TV recording devices, certain types of projectors, non-Microsoft remote-control devices, and especially USB-attached vacuum-fluorescent displays (the kind found in the found panels of many media PC cases) may need to have drivers supplied manually after the initial installation. Many of these devices have native Vista driver's already available - check with the manufacturer - but if they don't, a Windows XP driver may also handle the job efficiently. If upgrading to the 64-bit drivers for a particular device that just doesn't want to work. You might want to think about using the 32-bit device support available for you.

The most frequent consequence of upgrading to Vista - especially if you do a clean install - is that you'll need to back up and restore your data, and reinstall the applications. For the most part, the most efficient way to move user settings from one installation to another is through the Easy Transfer Wizard we talked about in earlier hubs, available on the Vista installation DVD and in the Vista operating system. The Transfer Wizard will move the following things as far as the Windows XP Media Center Edition is concerned; your user settings, documents, media files, applications-specific settings, and user-account information; your music files ripped to MCE, TV shows recorded through Media Center, and any other media obtained through MCE itself may need to be backed up if you're erasing everything; any copy-righted protected material on your system that's played through Media Player, such as WMS files ripped to the system from a CD with copy protection turned on, will have a corresponding license associated with it. The Transfer Wizard doesn't back up these licenses for you, but it will back up any protected files if you elect to do so (more on this below). After finishing the move, any Microsoft DRM (digital rights management) licenses that have been moved will need to be activated on the new machine via an Internet connection, which happens whenever you attempt to play a protected piece of material. Obviously, Microsoft does this to prevent cheating, so that you don't move the same protected content to more than one computer at a time. WMP no longer lets you export and import DRM licenses manually, so you have to recertify any protected material on the new machine in this way (make sure to do this last). Also, if you have protected content downloaded from third-party sites like Urge or Napster, you'll need to find out from them how to move your license to Vista - do this before wiping your old operating system though.

Owe, before we forget, when you use the Transfer Wizard to restore your data in Vista, do this in an administrator level account that doesn't share a name with any of the accounts you're transferring. Then, when you're done restoring, you can just delete that account.

Easy Transfer even has an Advanced Options mode that will let you decide exactly what to copy and what not to copy. Sometimes you really don't need to move everything.

Finally Vista has a clever way you can work around having to back up and restore media files stored on the same partition as Windows system files. When you install Vista, you can elect to install to the same partition as the Windows XP Media Center Edition installation without reformatting the disc, which is a very helpful thing. If you decide to do this, the existing Windows installation - including the Windows, directory, the application directories, and the user's Documents And Settings folders - is moved to a folder named WINDOWS.OLD. Then after you have installed Vista successfully, you can just transfer your old data out of the WINDOW.COM folder without a care in the world. Likewise, if you have a large music folder be sure to exclude the music directory from the Transfer Wizard and then after the transfer rebuild it by pointing Vista's Media Player at your My Music folder on the old drive and let it rebuild the library of music selections for you.

Well that's it for another hub on everything Vista; this hub should help you make the move seamlessly from Windows XP Media Center Edition to Vista. Join us again, next time, as we will discuss how to make the move from Windows XP Pro version to Vista, until then traveler, happy hubbing!