Hack can upgrade XP Home to XP Pro Lite

t does take a bit of doing but here are the steps in more accurate detail.
1> Copy all the xp home(OEM or Upgrade) files off the disc to a local drive.
(to get xp sp2 (download me here) slipstreamed into the oem folder I simply used a program called Nlite More about this program later.)

2> Next I opened the "I386" folder looked for "winnt.sif" and edited it.
Here is how I run automated installs using this file.

[Data]
Autopartition = 0
MsDosInitiated = 0
UnattendedInstall = Yes
[Unattended]
UnattendMode = FullUnattended
UnattendSwitch = No
OemPreinstall = Yes
OemSkipEula = Yes
FileSystem = *
WaitForReboot = No
NoWaitAfterTextMode = 1
NoWaitAfterGUIMode = 1
TargetPath = Windows
ProgramFilesDir = "C:\Program Files"
CommonProgramFilesDir = "C:\Program Files\Common"
DriverSigningPolicy = Ignore
NonDriverSigningPolicy = Ignore
[Display] Xresolution = 1024
Yresolution = 768
BitsPerPel = 32
Vrefresh = 75
[GuiUnattended]
EncryptedAdminPassword = No
AdminPassword = "Whatever You Want"
TimeZone = 010
OEMSkipRegional = 1
OemSkipWelcome = 1

[Shell]
DefaultThemesOff = Yes
DefaultStartPanelOff = Yes

[LicenseFilePrintData]
AutoMode = PerServer
AutoUsers = 20

[Components]
iis_common = On
iis_inetmgr = On
iis_pwmgr = Off
iis_doc = Off
iis_www = On
Iis_www_vdir_printers = Off
Iis_www_vdir_scripts = Off

[UserData]
ProductKey = "*****-*****-*****-*****-*****" ---THis will enable you to install without putting your product key in!
ComputerName = RENAME_ME
FullName = "Your FUllName"
OrgName = "Your OrgName"

[RegionalSettings]
Language = 0409

[Networking]
InstallDefaultComponents = Yes

[Identification]
JoinWorkgroup = workgroup
Here is the file if you want to just edit it yourself. (open in notepad only) winnt.sif .

You can also use Nlite to automate this also.



4>Then I edited the "setupreg.hiv" This was the most tricky part. To do this you need to open up regedit and go to
"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE" Highlight it and click on file and load hive.
Load "i386\Setupreg.hiv". regedit will ask for a name
name it "Homekey".
Drill down throught this key untill you find "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Homekey\ControlSet001\Services\setupdd"
all you have to do is edit the binary key "default" and change all "01" and "02" to "00".
Once you have done this you can save it and go back and highlight "Homekey" entry and go to file and "unload hive"
it should ask to where and save it to "i386\Setupreg.hiv". It will ask you to overwrite the existing. Go ahead and do so.

If you do not feel comfortable with doing this yourself you can down load my Setupreg.hiv.

5>Now run Nlite to slipstream xp sp2 into the "I386" folder
Nlite will also allow you to tweak your install and delete unnessasary language files as well as help files.
Nlite will ask you to create an ISO of your new install wherever you would like it to go.

****With Nlite you can also disable activation!!!*** VERY KEY feature....
Here is the WPA.DB_ that will kill activation. (right click and choose "save as")

A great thing about Nlite is it will also include the much needed boot img and files you need to do the oem install

Thats it.

You now have a fully usable windows xp pro lite.


SOURCE

instead of dling Nlite you can use the cmd.exe within windows to update the original setup files with the newer sp2 files

extract the sp2 setup file to a folder, navigate to the folder you saved the sp2 file in by typeing, cd C:\foldername\etc\etc then type WindowsXP-KB835935-SP2-ENU -x where WindowsXP-KB835935-SP2-ENU is the file name, to make it easier on yourself rename the setup file so the nameis shorter. then when it prompts you to extract to a location select one doesnt really matter, just be sure you know where you put it. copy the entire contents of your xp cd to a folder on your computer. then type c:\folder name of sp2\i386\update\update /s:C:\foldername of setup cd .

Ill do an example.

cd C:\downloads
sp2 -x sp2=renamed sp2 installer
c:\sp2 for my extraction location i choose c:\sp2 after this step i copied my xp disc to c:\xpcd
c:\sp2\i386\update\update /s:c:\xpcd

then a notification will come up telling you when its complete

my steps takes you through the slipstream process, these steps seem to be faster for me since i know what im doing, if you dont know more of how the os works just go with a program to do it for you.