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How to Downgrade Windows XP Professional to Windows XP Home!

Well, all us geeks have been there and done that FCKGW XP Pro Key thing, and then had to change our mobile number when the XP service pack came out. 

After many years of seeking a solution, Ive finally found one that works!!!

 OK, so you’ve got a mates/customers computer, its got an XP home COA stuck on it’s side, cool, you can dig out your XP home OEM CD and get on with doing a repair install - the fixer of all XP wierdness… well thats the theory.

 So you boot of your CD, hit enter, the chose “Repair” to to an inplace upgrade, keeping all their settings ‘n stuff.  WHAT! Waddya mean it doesnt detect the install?  WTF?  oh bugger, its got XP Pro on it… and you can’t “downgrade” XP Pro to XP Home.  What now? another Dodgy Key?  Some other Bios Crack to fudge it?  Why? Its got a Legit Sticker on the Side.  Well you could back up their 1.7 terrabyte of porn wares and mp3’s and do a clean install… feck that!  you need XP Mode Switch from filewalker.de!

This cool utility allows you so fool XP into thinking its whatever version you like!  So boot back up into XP Pro, Run modeswitch, select XP home, and reboot.  Then Shutdown Windows, boot again from your XP Home OEM CD and this time when you go to do a repair install you can see the installation in the list - away you go!  XP repaired and subsequently downgraded to XP Home, using the legit key on the side of the PC!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 26th, 2008 at 9:54 pm and is filed under Windows XP. 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.

13 Responses to “How to Downgrade Windows XP Professional to Windows XP Home!”

  1. OMG thanks! I needed this so badly. :D

  2. Many thanks :)

  3. [...] was taken from another site “That should sort it out for you” so all credits go to him. Categories: Computer Blog Posted By: admin Last Edit: 07 [...]

  4. Hi,

    I am in a situation where i have my ligit CD and Product key, pro was installed illegally. and now i am having a problem. I am gonna take this advice, and will let you know how it goes. Thanks

  5. amazing. just what the doctor ordered.

  6. My laptop originally came mith Windows ME, then I installed XP Home Upgrade, then XP Pro full version. I’d like to use your method to downgrade the laptop to Home so that I can legitimately transfer the Pro version to a different PC. Do you think it will work in my situation?

  7. This is just what I was looking for.

    However the ‘repair install’ option was missing when I tried.

    Does this switching app work with SP3′d intallations ok? Or is it because the Pro version I am trying to replace is the ’students’ edition?

    Cheers.

  8. Hi Jimbo, This method would theoretically work, but not too sure how that would afect licencing. If you still have the WinME OEM Licence, and the XP Home Upgrade Licences, then you should be covered. If the XP Pro was an OEM licence, then youre not theorectically allowed to move that licence from one PC to another. But if its a retail version, the you are allowed.

    Either way, the method above should work just fine.

  9. Hi Doobz, Once you have run the mode switch app, your installation thinks its XP Home. You will then need to boot from and XP home OEM disk. Once in the Blue and white set-up screen, ignore the first repair option, and select install. The setup installer should then search local disks to locate any existing installations. Once it finds an XP home install, you are then presented with the option to overwrite, format or repair that installation. Select repair at that point and you should be away?!

    Let me know.

  10. Thanks for replying.
    I’m pretty sure I did everything correctly. The OS install in question is the students edition of XP pro - Seemingly banned with SP3.

    The only install that was available was the one not recommended - that of installing the os in a partition with windows already on. If I remember correctly this creates separate Windows and ProgramFiles folders essentially leading to a fresh install. This is not the desired solution as there are many programs installed.

    Either the app doesn’t work with this variant of XP, or it has been rendered inoperable by the parts of SP3 that have installed, or my XP home SP2 CD is not the right one.

    I’ll let you know if I stumble on a solution.
    Also, if you have any ideas…….

    Cheers.

  11. Doobz, try this….

    Select “Install” and a EULA will show up, hit “F8″ to agree to the EULA.

    See if “Repair Windows” appear as one of the options on the next screen after hitting “F8″.

  12. I think there may be an issue with SP3 - because, like others above - Going from XP PRo -> HOME, I run the utility, then reboot with the HOME disc in the drive,but it doesnt find the previous installation of windows.
    I havent tried it on original, sp1 or sp2 machines yet to confirm, but i suspect they may have changed something in the registry in SP3.

  13. I think that xp switcher software sounds brilliant - the number of times I have had that problem also with the number of xp editions there are - I wonder if there is a vista version.

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