Core Duo laptops shipping with XP Home

I've seen the currently available Core Duo laptops from Dell, Toshiba and Gateway shipping with XP Home installed.

Isn't that a bit completely, totally messed up because XP Home doesn't support multi processor?

So, what gives?

That's a pretty odd move from the manufacturers.

 

they just want to make an extra buck, or not use up their more expencive product codes when selling. in most instances the opertunity to upgrade to windows XP is pressent, it just costs extra...

i had planned on geting xp home and just upgrading to xp pro when i got the system(sence i have the disk)

 

Obviously, it's something you can fix yourself, if you know how to and have a copy of XP Pro.

But I think it's pretty lame, if I can say it like that, when most consumers won't know the difference and assume that if it's shipping as it is, it should work correctly.

 

My guess would be that its because dual-core processors are just that - dual core. They're not dual-cpu. There's two cores on one physical die.

 

Yep. XP Home does support dual core processors...just one processor though, but still both cores.

AMD X2's are supported by XP Home, to utilize both cores.

 

Hmm well i see, that was a bit of a misunderstanding, here i am running all over the web to find information to back this claim up ... but i didn't find anything, i guess this is why Lol

 

Yep, the others are correct.

Win XP Home does support dual core systems. It just wont support multiple processor systems. There is a difference between dual core and multiple processors. Dual core are 2 processing core on a single socket whereas multiple proc systems are 2 cores on 2 different sockets(generally use in servers).

 

So... if miner is correct, XP Home will support core duo but not hyperthreading? How lame is that?

 

Um..err. No. It does support Hyperthreading. HT is more or less just emulating dual core. If you run XP Home Ed. on a true multiple processor system, it wont even be able to recognise the second processor.

 

HT is really just being more efficient with the queuing of data. It's organizing how it's all processed to have less "down cycles"(this is all horribly simplified and leaving out lots of details). It kind of gives the feel of "dual processors", but in practicality, is nothing like it. However, like miner said...HT has always been supported in XP Home. I don't think I read anything in this thread that indicates it isn't, before dragonesse's post.

 

HT is having one physical core and one logical core on one die, while dual-core is having two phyiscal cores on one die.

 

Or, if you wanna get really fancy, you can have dual dual-core processors for a total of four cores!