For many OEMs, Microsoft^® Windows^® XP Professional has been the natural operating system of choice when deploying products such as information kiosks, ATMs (automatic teller machines), point-of-sale terminals or Man-to-Machine devices. Many hardware platforms for these types of devices are pared down PCs, so deploying XP Professional presents no real challenge. Additionally, in most cases, application development for these devices would have been carried out in a PC environment and so porting the application across – along with the operating system – provided continuity and guaranteed functionality, with little or no further development effort.  

It becomes apparent, however, that XP Professional was never intended for deployment in this way, as unlike its componentised counterpart, Windows Embedded Standard (Previously known as XP Embedded), XP Professional offers little opportunity for optimisation. Even for the most robustly developed platform and application, this can present reliability issues. XP Professional is inherently designed for use on PCs, where operator interaction is expected. For the kind of devices mentioned above, such as information kiosks in public places, or point-of-sale terminals operated by general assistants, where operators aren’t present, simple issues such as an unplugged peripheral can easily escalate in to faults, demanding expensive site visits.

Windows Embedded Standard also carries a significantly lower license cost than XP Professional – as much as 40% lower. This alone makes porting your application from XP Professional to Windows Embedded Standard a viable, cost-reduction exercise. There has never been a more appropriate time to make the right move and migrate to Windows Embedded Standard. With MPC Data’s XPert service, that migration can be seamless and pain-free.

MPC Data has introduced Embedded XPert; a porting service that allows applications developed for XP Professional to take full advantage of the commercial and technical benefits of Windows Embedded Standard, by optimising your platform for cost, functionality and robustness.

 
Windows Embedded Standard is functionally equivalent to XP Professional with some important differences. Most notably, Windows Embedded Standard is modular; it is comprised of some 12,000 individual components, each of which may be included, or omitted, as necessary. This means that only those elements essential for your application need to be part of the software image. This immediately introduces much greater robustness to the end product, because any function not needed is omitted and can not, therefore, present a possible point of failure.