Microsoft has been embedded from NT4.0, but it is a separate version from CE. I was using NT4.0 embedded to do a 14MB version with the Explorer graphical interface.
XPE is a very modular version, with more than 10,000 components, the latest can be cropped to more than 100 trillion, playable very strong.
WES7 and WES8 also have a modular version, with only more than 1000 components, and basically no playability.
WES8.1 is not a component version, the so-called Windows 8.1 Embedded version, is the normal desktop version, the addition of embedded components (mainly disk write filtering, but the third party many disk filtering software such as Karifei, the basic can be killed in seconds) no playable shape.
After WINDOWS8, the original CE give up, all using NT code base. WINDOWS10 is the unification version. And, for mobile phones and 9-inch flat-panel windows free of charge, the main reason is andriod competition new reason, now in the embedded market, Microsoft is completely not Android and Apple rivals, free tricks out of the way, the poor open source. In the competition between Android and Apple, the short-term view of embedded Windows is difficult to see what is going on, long awaited.
A summary of embedded windows
