XP Home to XP Pro

I ran into this issue some time ago when I needed to add a computer to the domain, but found out the PC was running Windows XP Home and that product will not join a domain. Now of course the last thing I really wanted to do was rebuild a PC with XP Pro and setup all the programs and such as we all know how long that takes. I found this shortcut and of course I offer this to you as it is no warranty. It worked for me…but it may not be a 100% fix for all.

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.