@JTRTech POSReady has different licensing than retail versions of Windows. You cannot buy Embedded versions, they need to be installed by the manufacturer / OEM or system builder. We use POSReady 7, but needed to work with our supplier to purchase the licenses for each system we sell. The per system license cost is much lower than retail versions, but the end user cannot reinstall the system (i.e. if system needed reinstall they need either to go back to where they purchased from or install a retail version of Windows from scratch). Therefore, there is no installation media for end user. For a system builder, you get a master install of POSReady which you then use to configure your general install for each hardware you use. Each system does not require activation (therefore a very convenient time saver), and for us, once we have our master system set up, we take a disk image of it using Microsoft’s free ImageX utility. Our image is of the OS, plus all drivers, configuration, support software, MSSQL Server, SambaPOS. So, when we sell a new system, we just write the image to the system, and it’s pretty much ready for SambaPOS customisation in 20 minutes.
POSReady 2009 (XP version) was a lot better for general software compatibility (e.g. user can install MS Office). However I have found POSReady 7 some normal software like MS Office will not install, I never researched further about this but found out from client feedback. I never had any problem with installing software needed for using as a POS. Also, because the system builder is put in control of what windows components are available, end user cannot access windows components from Add/Remove software. This is good for a support angle, but not ideal for end user who is IT proficient. You can get around this but you need to install windows components via command line.
There are some other benefits of POSReady I won’t go into here and you can read about online, but for SambaPOS it is a good OS to use if you are purchasing POS hardware from a supplier as the cost of OS will be less. But if you are setting up yourself, you don’t have this option so must use retail / OEM or similar licensed versions of retail Windows.