Windows XP Media Center 2005 is on the Domain

See, this is why I love the Internet. If you have a computer problem, no matter how obscure, somebody in the digital vastness has been there and has shared or will share the solution. Such is the case with my Media Center predicament a couple of posts ago.

The Lowdown: A friend of mine is an independent graphic artist (and a darned good one) who shares office space with another business which has a server on a small domain. Desperately in need of a PC upgrade, my friend found a Gateway (specs posted earlier) with two 20" widescreen HiDef monitors. The whole setup cost less than $3,000.00 - not bad and very nice looking. It also came with Windows XP Media Center (MCE) 2005 which, as we've learned, cannot participate on a domain. Even Microsoft says "Nope, not gonna do it!"

Never say "Never"!

After an hour of research, I found a brilliant individual who has it all figured out with published instructions. The steps were fairly tricky, but the premise was genius. If an upgrade from MCE 2004 to MCE 2005 keeps the domain option enabled, then why don't we trick the 2005 version into thinking that it's been upgraded? Fifteen minutes later - Bingo! But again, not as straightforward as one might think.

The end-result? Simply Magical.