[dba-Tech] Switch a Windows XP Home into an XP Professional

Jim Lawrence accessd at shaw.ca
Thu Apr 21 21:50:13 CDT 2011


Thanks for the technical explaination, Gustav. 

Did it once a while back, when trying to make an XP box into a web server
(it worked) but now it is great to have the real docs at my finger-tips. 

This entry will be tagged and saved.

Jim



-----Original Message-----
From: dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Gustav Brock
Sent: Thursday, April 21, 2011 2:54 PM
To: dba-tech at databaseadvisors.com
Subject: [dba-Tech] Switch a Windows XP Home into an XP Professional

Hi all

We are moving into Active Directory. Thus, a couple of Windows XP Home
machines had to be upgraded to XP Professional to be able to join the
domain.
Facing this non-productive workload, I recalled that an XP Pro version is
nothing more than a non-crippled XP Home version.
And it is. For those of you not aware of this, here is explained how to make
the switch in minutes and with zero reinstall of apps etc.:

http://www.codingforums.com/archive/index.php/t-34191.html 
<quote>
This will let you join a computer to a Domain.
You may not be able to get anymore security updates after making this
change.

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.
</quote>

Of course, you will have to supply a valid XP Professional product key. If
you don't, XP will run, but the Windows "Genuine Advantage" Update will be
haunting you and Windows Update may cease to operate. However, having the
key, this is easy - there even exists a video showing how to perform this
task:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPmI1oFUrg4

/gustav


_______________________________________________
dba-Tech mailing list
dba-Tech at databaseadvisors.com
http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/dba-tech
Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com




More information about the dba-Tech mailing list