It's a little more than that because some of the pieces of Pro don't even get loaded onto the XP Home system.
There are instructions out there on the web that will show you how to modify an XP Home CD so that it installs as XP Pro (and loads everything needed), but you can only do this on a fresh install - you can't "change" an existing XP Home install to a XP Pro install without buying the XP Pro upgrade. (And I have upgraded a few systems from XP Home to XP Pro without any problems, using the retail XP Pro upgrade CD.)
There are also some issues with tricking XP Home into loading as XP Pro - namely, you will not be able to install future service packs because the license key will still be for XP Home and the SP2 and future installers will still think it is XP Home.
You can get around this also by "slipstreaming" SP2 into the modified XP Home install so it loads them both at the same time - but that won't help when/if SP3 comes out - you are looking at a total re-install again if you want move to SP3 and with your illegal XP Pro install.
Depending on how much your time is worth, in the long run it is just easier to pony up the $180 or whatever to get the XP Pro upgrade. I used to have time to screw around with stuff like this...
Depending on how much your time is worth, in the long run it is just easier to pony up the $180 or whatever to get the XP Pro upgrade. I used to have time to screw around with stuff like this...
Or, you can save the $180 by using Linux. :-)
I agree with you about screwing around with that kind of stuff on my own time. I'm at the point now, where I just want my stuff to work. I don't have to be running the latest and greatest. As long as everything I need works, I'm a happy camper.