Hack to Change Windows XP Home to Windows XP Professional

Enable the features found in Windows XP Professional on your Windows XP Home Edition installation with this hack. It will allow you to turn your Windows XP Home CD into a Windows XP Profrssional CD.

Note: If your Windows XP CD does not contain Service Pack 2, you might want to Slipstream Your Windows XP CD first as you will not be able to upgrade an installation after using the CD.

1. Copy the root directory and the i386 directory of the WindowsXP CD to your hard drive.

2. Extract the Bootsector of your Windows XP CD.

3. Click START-->RUN-->REGEDIT

4. Highlight HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE

5. Click FILE-->LOAD HIVE and select the Setupreg.hiv file This file is located on your Windows XP CD in the i386 folder.

6. Locate the following registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINEHomekeyControlSet001Servicessetupdd

7. Edit the DEFAULT key and change the following values:

01 to 00 02 to 00

8. Change the name to the value HOMEKEY to anything.

9. Locate the following registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINEHomekeyControlSet001Servicessetupdd Edit the DEFAULT key and change the following values: 01 to 00

02 to 00

10. Highlight HOMEKEY and select FILE-->UNLOAD HIVE

You can now burn the data on your hard drive to a CD. Then use the CD to install Windows XP. Be sure to make the CD bootable. You can use the instructions here in an upcoming post to help you do that.

Posted in: Tips,Tune-up,Tweaking,Windows XP