[mclarkin9681]

I was looking at the hardware section of the forum for building a windows HTPC and was wondering what people's choices are for windows operating system. Or should I go Lynx?

Pro/cons that kind of stuff.

[PatK]

This kind of question is full of questions Have a read through the hardware forums, some very good suggestions and builds.

Are you going to have a NAS?
Do you want to run other programs in the background?
Which O/S are you most familiar with?
Is this going to be a dedicated from boot HYPC?
Is Apple equipment part of this equation?
Projector with AV receiver here?

Interesting stats no long ago Check here.

[baijuxavior]

For a dedicated HTPC you can try openelec. If you want to use the system for other use also then Windows 8 is very good. It gives a fast booting option compared to Win7. My Win8 htpc boots in flat 15 seconds whereas Win7 took 30-40 seconds.

[haverer2]

Was the win7/8 boot time comparison perhaps comparing an old win7 install with a new win8 one?? I find my windows 7 machine boots in about 15seconds in total. Very impressed with it and actually use that rather than win8 by choice.

[z31fanatic]

If your choice is between win7 or win8, then definitely go with win8. Quicker, more secure, and uses less resources than win7.

[mclarkin9681]

Thanks all for the replies. I am unfamiliar with Lynx but dont mind learning the system, if that is the best route. This would be a dedicated box for just HTPC that i plan it boot into...i am familiar with this with Windows 7...again i can learn it in Lynx or Windows 8 if need be.

I dont plan plan on running anything in the background...apple equipment will not be involved and i will plug it into a tv (not projector)

I am most familiar with windows 7.

[futuro]

I am using Windows 8 already for along time on my HTPC with no issues. Has Windows 7 before but must say that booting time is much less using Windoes 8. As you mention that the HTPC should be used for XBMC only, this guide might be useful for you. It gives you the possbility to run XBMC on startup without loading explorer.exe. So, you will eve not see that Windows is running behind XBMC.

http://cybernetnews.com/xbmc-run-boot-xb...windows-8/

[teeedubb]

If its for just xbmc try openelec.

[bluechris]

Win8 are a bit faster but if you used to them, i personally prefer 7 because sometimes a simple thing brakes balls to do it.