In reply to
The way this has come about is that someone has installed a copy of XP, then uninstalled/removed the frilly bits of the operating system, like IE (they have left the core files that Windows needs), Outlook Express, Windows Messenger and other programs that are not erally needed for windows to run.
They have then disabled all non-essential services which improves the startup time of Windows and lowering the memory usage while windows is running. They have also removed the vast amount of drivers that XP has built in, but left the main drivers for graphics cards, network cards etc, again improving the startup time of windows.
It is NOT, I repeat NOT a new operating system, it is nothing more than a severely cutdown install of XP.
As such it will be seen on the internet as a standard install of windows, and if you enable automatic updates again then you will receive updates, as long as you have a valid serial number for the OS.
I have no clue why Ziggy is being so secretive about this. After all anyone with a decent understand of Windows services and componants can do this on ANY XP machine
From my experience it sits better when you make your own version of XP if you are going to do this at all. There is software, it's free and I'm annoyed it's name escapes me now, but it's a very simple friendly interface and you literally untick the boxes of what you don't want in your XP, finalise your project and hit burn disc. Everything is there, the smallest install I have seen for XP is 80meg.
I'm not saying this "beast" edition won't be wonderful, just saying if you think it's worth having perhaps look a little further into it first. We all use our pc's for different things, and what is good for one man may not be for another.