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Change Windows XP Home to Windows XP Pro
2005 June 1
How to change a Windows XP Home installation to an XP Pro installation for free. Before attempting this be warned that you can’t install SP2 after you do this, so it might be wise to slipstream SP2 onto the ISO you intend to work with first.
Also, I would suspect that Microsoft will issue a patch of some sort or another that will disable this and or break your installation as this goes completely against their EULA.
1. Copy the root directory and the i386 directory of the WindowsXP CD
to your harddisk
2. Extract the Bootsector of your WindowsXP CD
3. Change 2 Bytes in i386\Setupreg.hiv :
a) Open Regedit
b) Highlight HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
c) Menu: File -> Load Structure -> i386\Setupreg.hiv
d) Assign an arbitrary name to the imported structure e.g. “Homekey”
e) Goto HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Homekey\ControlSet001\Services\setupdd
f) edit the binary key “default” and change “01” to “00” and “02” to
“00”
g) Highlight “Homekey” and select menu: File -> unload structure
4. Burn your new XP Pro CD
5. Install WindowsXP as usual. Your XP Home Key will work.Note: You cannot apply SP2 to such a WindowsXP Pro, so step 1.b)
might be to integrate SP2 in your Installation CD
Via Geek News Central, originally from Gizmodo.
[Currently caressing my eardrums: Backdoor Love Affair - ZZ Top - The Best of ZZ Top (03:19)]
5 Responses
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I have a xp pro installation disc (from my other computer), can I use it to upgrade my xp home edition?
thanks
As far as I know, you can’t. You’d have to do a fresh install, just make sure that everything important is backed up first.
You could also try the hack above if you wanted to, (if Microsoft haven’t already patched it) however, if you have a legal copy of XP Pro, then you should just do the fresh install.
What I would be worried about is that you might be installing XP PRO, just because it’s the “PRO” version. Unless you really need the extra stuff in PRO (IIS etc), then you’re as well sticking with home.
Thanks Paul,
I did the upgrade and everything went Ok until it ask for the product key, i have one but it is already in my other computer.
How can get another product key? (other than calling Microsoft
Thanks
That’s where things get tricky, because according to the EULA you’re only allowed have one copy of windows per product key oneach computer.
So, following that, you would need to uninstall PRO from the original computer and reinstall on the second. Then you could re-activate.
Of course, you could just try re-activating without anyway, but that may not work.
There were other options, such as having both machines behind a router so all trafic appeared to come from one address, or nat, but I think the recent upgrades to windows update and their “product activation/genuine product” solutions, will force you to look for alternative solutions.
Hi, do you know how to change XP pro to the media center edition?