Convert and Upgrade Windows XP Home to Professional Without Reinstalling

After installing Windows XP Home Edition or Windows XP Professional Edition onto a computer, officially it’s impossible for user to convert, or upgrade from Windows XP Home to Pro edition, or downgrade from Windows XP Professional to Home edition without reformatting and reinstalling the operating system from clean and fresh state.

A lot of people always associate conversion of Windows XP edition to illegitimate or privacy reason, but sometimes, there may be legitimate and genuine reason for change, such as customer, who all the while using Windows XP Home Edition (HE) finally buy a genuine license product key for Professional edition to replace the illegal pirated version installed, or user receives additional license as gift, but don’t want to go through clean install Windows XP again, or want to keep using the computer with all data intact without interruption.

Here’s a trick to convert and turn Windows XP Home Edition to Windows XP Pro Edition, from within the operating system without going through installation again. Ok, let’s be frank. The hack doesn’t actually install and add in all the features from Windows XP Professional that Windows XP Home lacks of, such as Remote Desktop Server (see guide to install Remote Desktop on XP Home) and Group Policy Editor (GPedit) utility tools, which has been removed on Windows XP Home edition. Some functions which turned off and disabled via integrated switches which read from registry flag whether it’s Home or Professional edition, such as EFS, RAID support and ability to join domain, may or may not work after migration. Basically, the trick only work to let Windows XP recognizes itself as Professional edition.

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.


This entry was posted on Friday, June 13th, 2008 at 1:27 am and is filed under Operating Systems. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

90 Responses to “Convert and Upgrade Windows XP Home to Professional Without Reinstalling”

Pages: « 4 3 2 [1] Show All

  1. bones
    November 12th, 2008 18:51
    25

    Shit, this really worked.

  2. dfdf
    October 29th, 2008 23:40
    24

    turk yok mu lan turk

  3. dsfd
    October 29th, 2008 23:39
    23

    amugakoyum

  4. Bryan Ray
    October 18th, 2008 15:01
    22

    Can anyone verify if this modification will enable dual processor support?

  5. Nik Kulks
    October 11th, 2008 16:25
    21

    Wow..Now system property says XP Professional 2002 SP1..

    Great work!!

  6. D Miller
    October 11th, 2008 01:37
    20

    Wow.

  7. GERMAN JULIAN
    October 3rd, 2008 00:35
    19

    FABULOSO…. JUSTO LO QUE NECESITABA , LAMENTO HABER TRASNOCHADO TANTO INTENTANDOLO ANTES… UFFF. REALMENTE ERA SENCILLO FLATABA SOLO LA AYUDA< DE E X P E R T O S ……

  8. Sean
    October 1st, 2008 04:56
    18

    how do you get the productsuite key back because i want windows xp home back. Could you tell me what the information is for the productsuite key and then i will just put it back in. Thanks

  9. N Bowes
    September 20th, 2008 07:22
    17

    I have 4 Compaq 1220nx, all came with xp home. all upgrades were performed to sp3. Decided needed server with domain, did not want to reload all software. XP Pro (OEM) did upgrade on 3 of the 4 perfectly, making networking better. the 4th would not. So got XP pro retail, same deal would not offer option of upgrading, without loss of programs. Is there some way of migrating the programs to XP Pro, even if I have to install another hard drive? Why, we have several cad programs that we do not wish to reinstall and spend weeks figuring out how we got them to the present configuration.

  10. BLUEAZTECK
    September 16th, 2008 04:24
    16

    DESPUES DE HABER CAMBIADO DE XP HOME A XP PROFESSIONAL, TIENES QUE CAMBIAR TAMBIEN LA CLAVE…PARA HACER ESTE HACK TE VAS A EJECUTAR EN EL MENU INICIO DESPUES REGEDIT
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\MICROSOFT\WINDOWSNT\.
    CURRENTVERSION\WPAEVENTS
    UNA VEZ AHI MODIDFICAS DOBLE CLIC SOBRE “OOBETIMER” Y BORRAS EL VALOR QUE CONTIENE, UNA VEZ HECHO ESTO TE VAS A EJECUTAR Y ESCRIBES LO SIGUIENTE:
    %SYSTEMROOT%\system32\OOBE\msoobe.exe /A
    LE DAS OK Y TE APARECE EL CUADRO DE ACTIVATE WINDOWS, Y LE DAS EN LA OPCION TELEFONEAR A UN REPRESENTANTE, Y BUSCAS LA OPCION CAMBIAR CLAVE AHI PONES UNA CLAVE VALIDA DE WINDOWS XP PROFESSIONAL EXISTEN MUCHAS EN EL INTERNET GRATIS YO NO LA PONGO POR MOTIVOS YA CONOCIDOS.
    BUENO PUES SUERTE Y ESPERO QUE LES FUNCIONE A MI ME FUNCIONO, NO OLVIDEN HACER UN BACKUP ANTES DE MODIFICAR CUALQUIER VALOR EN EL REGISTRO DEL SISTEMA(REGEDIT).

  11. BLUEAZTECK
    September 16th, 2008 04:06
    15

    ES FACIL GHASS AQUI LA RESPUESTA:

  12. ghass
    August 23rd, 2008 08:22
    14

    Hi Kjeld,

    I have the same problem now and i can’t access to windows. It gives the same error message “cannot verify the windows licence”. So, how can i resolve this problem?
    Thanks.

  13. smart1
    August 22nd, 2008 14:09
    13

    Awsome
    Love the remote desktop conection/terminal server

  14. Kjeld
    July 26th, 2008 05:00
    12

    Hello, I tried this conversion and it worked out just fine. Except, afterwards I tried upgrading to SP3. It says the machine cannot verify the Windows license (and therefore Windows cannot start).
    Luckily I was able to roll back the SP3 installation.

  15. ray fontes
    July 19th, 2008 09:51
    11

    bbman101
    July 12th, 2008 07:02
    8

    my registry edit has 2 control sets u said controlset00x
    i have
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/ControlSet001/
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/ControlSet002/
    wich one do i change

    Reply:
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/ControlSet002/…

    …the one with the highest number.

  16. Peter
    July 19th, 2008 07:02
    10

    how do you reverse it?

  17. Install and Enable Remote Desktop in Windows XP Home Edition 於傻仔仔
    July 16th, 2008 23:21
    9

    [...] To run Remote Desktop Terminal Services (server component) in Windows XP Home Edition, the operating system must first made to recognize itself as Windows XP Professional Edition. To do so, follow the guide to convert Windows XP Home to Windows XP Professional. [...]

  18. bbman101
    July 12th, 2008 07:02
    8

    my registry edit has 2 control sets u said controlset00x
    i have
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/ControlSet001/
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/ControlSet002/
    wich one do i change

  19. John
    July 8th, 2008 00:07
    7

    Well I tried it for poops and giggles and it didn’t work.

  20. convert Win XP home to Pro « Cerulean Sky
    June 23rd, 2008 21:14
    6

    [...] June 23, 2008 by TARONO refer this page [...]

  21. Eternalmoonlight.net » Life tips #12
    June 20th, 2008 05:42
    5

    [...] Convert and Upgrade Windows XP Home to Professional Without Reinstalling [...]

  22. Install and Enable Remote Desktop in Windows XP Home Edition » My Digital Life
    June 14th, 2008 00:17
    4

    [...] To run Remote Desktop Terminal Services (server component) in Windows XP Home Edition, the operating system must first made to recognize itself as Windows XP Professional Edition. To do so, follow the guide to convert Windows XP Home to Windows XP Professional. [...]

  23. admin
    June 14th, 2008 00:08
    3

    mfk, it’s useful to install rdp in xp home.

  24. Gerardo
    June 13th, 2008 17:28
    2

    I think one stronger reason, is a company that buy a domain controller, and realize that home ed. cannot be added to domains. Contrary to what you have said, is it possible to upgrade from home to professional normally with no hack. Just put the professional cd and chose the upgrade option. Nothing will be lose and the features of professional will be enabled (of course you will need a valid pro key). From pro to home isn’t possible.

  25. mfk
    June 13th, 2008 13:10
    1

    Dear Admin,

    Then what is the added advantage? And has anybody checked out the effect it has on wga, automatic updates etc.?

    Unless for some real benefit, there is no point! I love your tips, but this is not upto your standard!

    Regards,
    MFK.

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