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Installing Home over Pro

unfalliblekrutch

Golden Member
I have a copy of windows XP Professional on my laptop right now, but I would like to install my copy of Windows XP home on the laptop so I can use the copy of Pro on my desktop. Is there a way to do this kinda like an upgrade installation (when you go from home to pro it lets you use an "upgrade" install that keeps your files and stuff) so I don't have to reinstall all my programs?
 
No, Pro to Home is not a valid upgrade path.

Unless your copy of Pro is a retail copy, it's a violation of your license agreement to uninstall it from your laptop and reinstall it on another machine.
 
Originally posted by: MrChad
No, Pro to Home is not a valid upgrade path.

Unless your copy of Pro is a retail copy, it's a violation of your license agreement to uninstall it from your laptop and reinstall it on another machine.

Yes, I know about the license. My laptop came with Home OEM, but I installed my Pro over it. Now I just want that home OEM back so I can use my pro lisence elsewhere, but I don't want to have to reinstall my programs, so I was wondering if there was a way to do basically an "upgrade" installation.
This is a technical question concerning how I could install, not a question concerning lisences.
 
Originally posted by: unfalliblekrutch
Originally posted by: MrChad
No, Pro to Home is not a valid upgrade path.

Unless your copy of Pro is a retail copy, it's a violation of your license agreement to uninstall it from your laptop and reinstall it on another machine.

Yes, I know about the license. My laptop came with Home OEM, but I installed my Pro over it. Now I just want that home OEM back so I can use my pro lisence elsewhere, but I don't want to have to reinstall my programs, so I was wondering if there was a way to do basically an "upgrade" installation.
This is a technical question concerning how I could install, not a question concerning lisences.

Ok, fair enough.

In response to your technical question, you can't do an in-place upgrade of Home over Pro.
 
Would there be a work-around way? Somehow edit the registry to disable pro features and change the cd key or something like that?

Or perhaps somehow take a image of my current registry and just reapply it after a reinstall of windows?

EDIT: would it work if i did a repair installation using my XP home cd?
 
Originally posted by: stupidkid
Hmm...how would M$ know if you install your XP Pro on your desktop?

They probably won't. But again, the question isn't a question concerning licensing or anything. I'm asking purely concerning the technical side.
 
You could do a parallel install. This would require reloading your programs but would retain any projects/files created within those programs. Then remove the WinXP install.
 
Originally posted by: MagnusTheBrewer
You could do a parallel install. This would require reloading your programs but would retain any projects/files created within those programs. Then remove the WinXP install.

what? I have no clue what you just said, sorry.
 
A parellel install is done by renaming a half dozen or so files in WinXP (see MS knowledge base). Then you install XP Home version. You must reinstall your programs but any info/files created by them are still there. Then, you uninstall WinXP.
 
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