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[Question] Upgrading Home to PRO


r6su

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Let's not assume right away that the original poster was asking how to do it illegally. People are often confused by whether the XP Pro Upgrade package is just for upgrading from older versions of Windows or whether it can upgrade from Home Edition. They also commonly ask how the upgrade process works, in terms of preserving their existing programs and data.

To upgrade from XP Home to XP Pro, you purchase the same XP Pro Upgrade package that you would purchase if you were upgrading from Windows 2000, Windows ME, etc.

To preserve your existing programs and data, launch the installation while booted into your current XP Home. In other words, do not boot from the XP Pro CD. If you boot from the CD, your only choices will be to install a fresh copy of XP in a new directory or to overwrite your existing copy completely (wiping out your current registry). By launching the install from within your current Windows, it will do an in-place upgrade. When prompted for your Product Key, you will enter the new one which came with your Pro CD.

By the way, the technique which circulated on the web a couple of years ago for hacking Home into Pro was lame. First of all, it can't be done to an existing installation of Home; it was a hack to the Home CD which required you to reinstall. Second, even though it activated a few Pro features like domain membership and Remote Desktop, you were still missing a bunch of Pro-only commands and utilities (for example, schtasks.exe which provides command-line access to Scheduled Tasks) because they simply don't exist on the Home CD. If you compare a Home CD and a Pro CD, the Pro CD has 23MB more files. Obviously, you cannot simply hack a few settings and get 23MB to appear out of thin air. Lastly, service packs refuse to install on the hacked Home-Pro.

Edited by hosebeast
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Over the years I've upgraded my systems from 95 to 98,

from 98 to 98/SE,

From 98/SE to ME,

(hated ME and went back to 98/SE...restored a Ghost Image of 98/SE)

then, from 98/SE to XP Pro.

All without ever reformatting and doing a clean install.

I've used nothing but bonafied MS Upgrade CD's w/legal keys.

As long as you buy the proper version of the Windows UPGRADE CD,

with Registration Key,,,,,all's well.

Microsoft writes and markets its Upgrade CD's for this very purpose.

99.99% of the time, the upgrade is flawless.

Cleaning up your HD and making a Ghost Image of it is recommended, before you ever put in the Upgrade CD.

Going from XP-Home to XP-Pro won't gain you an awfull lot though, unless you

want to run a network from your PC. In the everyday home computer world,

the differences are negligable.

Having an XP-Pro+SP2 Upgrade CD is a great repair tool if you have an install of XP-Home that's totally hozaxed. You can get a new OS, fix the problems with the old one and never loose the first piece of data in the process. It's all good!

The only glitch is that you must run the Upgrade CD from within some previous version of Windows.

Which means that windows must be able to run.

Upgrade CD's (in all my own experience) DO NOT and WILL NOT boot up a PC.

(with all the expertise running around in this room, I'm sure someone has an exception to that)

I hope the original question has been properly answered without delving into hacks, cracks or Warez. :whistle:

Y'all have a great day now, Y'hear? :thumbup

B)

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Tnx to all repliers...I got answer I looked...It's possible to upgrade form Home to Pro....and of course I have legal MS Home and Pro will be legal too...

R

Edited by r6su
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