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Microsoft don't give it to us, but the option is there if you have no qualms about legal grey areas. I think Windows XP Black Edition, which a friend was using until the 7 RC came out, was based on Embedded.

Embedded was designed for hardware manufacturers (not consumers) and, as the name implies, was intended to be "embedded" in silicon.

Well, duh. What I was asking, essentially, was why the consumer versions of Windows have to be so bloated when they can, and do, make Windows with all its technologies small enough to be an embedded os of moderate size? Sometimes I'm convinced that Microsoft and the various CPU manufacturers are in collusion to force hardware upgrades along every few years.

Um, that's bogus. Windows 7 doesn't require any additional hardware beyond what Vista required.

Where is the bloat? the majority of space is being taken by the big cabnet of drivers which Microsoft includes. The only thing missing from the embedded version are the level of driver support included with the base operating system; less services enabled and installed on the assumption that a system integration is not selling a general purpose device.

I know it is 'cool' to senselessly bash Microsoft but please, could people raise the bar when entering into critiquing Microsoft's products - go beyond the pathetic and superficial. There are issues with Windows but don't get fixated on, "ooh, big number means bad!".