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How do I change XP Home to XP pro?
Tuesday, 23 February, 2010
OLD QUESTION
I’ve been told that you can ‘hack’ the CD for Windows XP Home and turn it into Windows XP Pro.
How do you do it?
(Originally posted November 2005)
Sleezee , ,
 You can’t.
‘Urban myths’ like this one get around from time to time, and usually they’re either completely or partially inaccurate. This particular one is most likely based on reports I recall seeing earlier this year about an article in a German magazine.
The article, as I recall, dealt with a procedure to ‘enable’ some of the extra ‘Pro’ version features such as Remote Desktop. It involved making and editing an image of the Windows CD and was a lot of fiddling about. Anyone doing it would need to ‘slipstream’ Service Packs onto the installation disk, and would still be left short of having XP Pro because it can't add some features which simply aren’t there! Anyone doing it would still be left unable to further update their Windows installation with security updates. And in any event it was an illegal procedure which would void the license to use the OS.
Complete waste of time and effort, in my view. Anybody who has XP Home already has an OS which is perfectly capable for just about any purpose, and changing to XP Pro is only really necessary if the PC is to be connected to a large network. If that is the motivation then it’s not too difficult to make the change inexpensively. An OEM edition of Windows XP Pro xould be purchased along with your next hardware upgrade item, or there are stores aplenty who will sell you a Student/Teacjer Edition at reduced cost..
Cheers, Terry O'Shanassy
 Reader solutions
piratepetePosted: 25/02/2010 re: How do I change XP Home to XP pro? I would question PZ as to why he bumped a 5 year old thread. Bored?
Can't imagine there are that many people these days wanting to turn XP Home into XP Pro.
(I only resurrect old threads when there's an interesting new post Pete. -PZ) andrew peter collinsPosted: 24/02/2010 re: How do I change XP Home to XP pro? The stupidity in these posts except for Daniel Young's is just too much. I can just imagine what the idiot who sent this question in looks like. He probably believes in the tooth fairy as well. I was watching AirWays the other night and this guy was arguing over $25.00 because he had not read the fine print. He was there in plenty of time with all the rugrats to board that flight but later took another flight on another carrier which i presume would have cost at least triple what he was arguing about just to be a spiteful prick. The reason i mention this is that there are some things you can and cannot do. If you wanted XP Pro, why didn't you just buy a computer already loaded with it? I'm running Windows 7 Ultimate because it has all the bells and whistles and i didn't want to feel like i was buying an "incomplete" OS, which my friend who built it understands. Getting back to the question at hand, yes you can upgrade from Home to Pro. Go out and buy the upgrade. If you start mucking around with the XP Home registry and stuff it up, an upgrade is useless until you do a full re-install of XP Home. There are some things you can do and some you can't. Gawd. How much is the upgrade? $200.00 bucks the last time i saw it and that was this year (2010). Cheers Andy :) JCPosted: 24/02/2010 re: How do I change XP Home to XP pro? Terry, I think Sleezee.....has got their words confused, meaning that whoever this person is does not know the difference.........between 'hacking' and, 'slip-streaming'.
By 'slip-streaming', yes, you can alter from XP Home......to XP Pro.
I have have done just so, many times.
The 'slip-streaming'....removes the XP Home 'Start-up windows'......to XP Pro, and adds.......the Programs that the Home version does not have.
Done properly, yes, it does work.
And, I still have the magazine........that fully details the whole process....so that it does work.
It's designed....to work.......with Nero 6.
(Possibly the later versions as well though I haven't done one, yet.)
Look back through the Files...of PcUser, for my responses......on 'slip-streaing', and how to do it. BildoPosted: 23/02/2010 re: How do I change XP Home to XP pro? Terry, I have done this successfully on 2 seperate machines, and have successfully authenticated on a domain, I have not checked if remote desktop or other features are there but this certainly can be done, not sure of the legality of it but it's possible, here are the steps, very easy
To convert and upgrade Windows XP Home to Windows XP Professional, follow procedure below.
1. Open Registry Editor (regedit).
2. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/ControlSet00X/Control/ProductOptions, where ControlSet00X is the one with the highest number.
3. Delete the ProductSuite registry key.
4. Then, create a new DWORD value and named it as Brand.
5. Set the ■Brand■ value data as 0.
6. Reboot the system.
7. On boot up after the BIOS screen, press F8 to display Windows XP Startup Menu.
8. Choose Last Known Good Configuration (LNG) and hit Enter.
Windows XP will start up as usual. After logging into the desktop, check the system properties to verify that it■s now Windows XP Professional. TrollPosted: 04/01/2010 re: How do I change XP Home to XP pro? First pick up your keyboard at arms length, hold it vertically. Quickly pull the keyboard into the air and hold it above your head and look at it. Press the Windows key and press the key opposite Home.
(You forgot the Masonic handshake Troll. -PZ) jimmy heaneyPosted: 27/12/2009 re: How do I change XP Home to XP pro? i have lost the code for xp home and pro i wannt to put on xp pro
(Buy another legitimate copy -- it shouldn't be that expensive nowadays. Or better still, uograde top Windows 7. Just check first that it will work on your PC -PZ) Terry O'ShanassyPosted: 03/12/2005 No, Michel, the Harbour Bridge is not for sale! I explained above that the 'hack' can't add features which aren't present on the XP Home CD.
The 'hack' referred to originated from an article in German magazine C'T which was translated, posted on the web, reported by news site "The Register" and then spread all over the web by people who read a few words, don't look into it any further, and then walk away with the wrong impression. When originally reported by "The Register" it was claimed that the modification turned Windows XP Home Edition into "XP Pro Lite", and many of the other articles you'll uncover with Google will also refer to it as "XP Pro Lite". It's referred to as a 'Lite' version because it's missing bits!
The hack itself involves using a hex editor to change two bytes in one of the setup files. This modification enables a few features which are actually present on the XP Home CD but not enabled by default. Remote desktop is one, some of the extra security features of the NTFS file system are another.
What the modification won't do, however, includes:
* changing the defrag routine to the more capable one included with XP Pro. You can't 'enable' what's not there on the CD.
* adding multi-processor support. Again, you can't enable what's not there to start with.
* enable domain authentication capability. Same old story. It just isn't there on the CD.
Anyone who performs the modification would need to slipstreeam the service packs into the installation CD they were preparing, by the way, because the Windows Update capability would be 'broken' after it was done.
As to legality, well no, it's not 'legal' because the code is being altered. But do I personally think Microsoft would be jumping up and down about people who carried out the operation and ended up with a 'pretend' copy of XP Pro which doesn't have all the features people really need from that OS version? Nope, not at all. In fact I think the people at Microsoft would look at this, think "Meh!" and then sit back laughing at the silliness of it all!
Sorry to burst the bubble a bit, but those Google results should really be examined more closely. There's not really such a thing as the Philosopher's Stone! MichelPosted: 02/12/2005 re: How do I change XP Home to XP pro? You can and it's totally legal, because you may change settings in your register. Just search at google for "XP home to XP Pro Hack" and you will find plenty of solutions
(Would you also like to buy the Harbour Bridge Michel. I can sell it to your cheap. -Paul Zucker) Daniel YoungPosted: 27/11/2005 re: How do I change XP Home to XP pro? I thourght u could buy a upgrade cd from XP Home to XP Pro? G■1|\/|■33P3RPosted: 19/11/2005 re: How do I change XP Home to XP pro? I dont think PC User is really the right place to be asking such a question. I dont think Terry is going to help you break the law.
Its a pitty they dont sell a upgrade version of XP Pro only upgradable from XP Home. That would be nice. |