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Free Upgrade From XP Home to XP Pro Lite

Posted by Zonk on from the think-these-things-through dept.

Novus writes "The Register reports that many of the features of Windows XP Pro, such as Remote Desktop and user management, can be enabled in Windows XP Home simply by changing two bytes in an installation data file. Another explanation can be found here."

12 of 540 comments (clear)

  1. PEOPLE WITH MOD POINTS: CALL FOR HELP by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    There's a guy currently flooding Slashdot with randomly generated crap messages with the intent of disrupting normal discussion. Click on one of the links below to see what I mean. If you have mod points left and aren't sure what to use them for, plase mod him down so we can get his network banned.

    Comment #1
    Comment #2
    Comment #3
    Comment #4
    Comment #5

    Comment #6
    Comment #7
    Comment #8

    Your help would be very much appreciated. Thanks!

    If you actually HAVE a different use for your mod points, just use them elsewhere and don't reply. But keep in mind that crapflooding WILL come to one of your discussions sooner or later.

    1. Re:PEOPLE WITH MOD POINTS: CALL FOR HELP by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      first not supporting gay rights and now changing to pro life. one more reason not to buy microsoft

  2. PEOPLE WITH MOD POINTS: CALL FOR HELP by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    There's a guy currently flooding Slashdot with randomly generated crap messages with the intent of disrupting normal discussion. Click on one of the links below to see what I mean. If you have mod points left and aren't sure what to use them for, plase mod him down so we can get his network banned.

    Comment #1
    Comment #2
    Comment #3
    Comment #4
    Comment #5

    Comment #6
    Comment #7
    Comment #8

    Your help would be very much appreciated. Thanks!

    If you actually HAVE a different use for your mod points, just use them elsewhere and don't reply. But keep in mind that crapflooding WILL come to one of your discussions sooner or later.

  3. Linux Fans: How Brainwashed are YOU? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic
    Linux fans, if you're brave enough, if you're truly FREE enough, state in a reply to this comment that "Linux and Free Software are not perfect." The body of your comment should be a list of 20 reasons why you believe this is so.

    When you've completed this task, you will be congratulated and engaged in intelligent discourse with others who might wish to pick your brain.

    1. Re:Linux Fans: How Brainwashed are YOU? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      Are you running Linux 1.0.0?

    2. Re:Linux Fans: How Brainwashed are YOU? by AlexMax2742 · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      Linux and Free Software are not perfect. This is coming from a user who has been casually been trying to get into Linux since Red Hat 6.2, and has each time gone back to Windows. I still like it, but there is a ton of shit that bugs me about it.

      I know you're probably also a troll, but this is a pretty stupid news story anyway, (selling scaled down versions of software with minor modifications is nothing new, AutoCAD LT as just one of hundreds of examples of the same damn thing, yet we don't see new storys featuring Autodesk on the main page) so I don't care if I shit on it.

      I only thought of nine, but that ought to do, and probably as big of a response as you're going to get.

      1) No unification in package management. RPM is flawed (hi dependancy hell), and YUM is only a bandaid on the solution. DEB is great, but only debian based distributions support it. Windows may have multiple companies doing install programs, but at least they're all doing mostly the same thing.
      2) The reliance of many people on "source only". Please. I don't want to download ten million different libraries and go through the hastle, however small you may argue it is, to build from source. I want to download this piece of software, install it, and get on with my life.
      3) Alt-Tab. I don't care how yuo do it, but I want to be able to alt tab from a full screen graphical program to another graphical screen (not a console).
      4) Drivers. There isn't much that can be done about this, but unless you're masachistic, you're basically forced to use an nVidia video card to get accelerated X. I want my piece of shit Intel EXTREME onboard graphics card to run accelerated X too.
      5) GTK themes vs. KDE themes. I don't care if you like programing with GTK 2/+ or with QT libraries, but would it kill you to figure out some easy way to make the actual windows look somewhat similar? I have my awesome theme for KDE, I don't want to do some stupid hack that doesn't work 100% or wait for the author to convert the same theme to GNOME to get my graphical programs to display the same. Oh, and on a side note, can you please figure out why KDE's sound system is so terrible. I do not want to wait a few minutes for KDE to let go of the sound system so I can fucking start Neverwinter Nights.
      6) man pages. Explain the contents of a man page for a basic command to a casual user. If he is utterly confused, rewrite it. At least group the fuctions into 'most used' and 'never use in a million years'
      7) Configuration. It's easy if you know exactly where in the mess of configuration files on your system a certain file is (usually /etc, which is good) and what it's named (HAHAHAHA, good luck). Or if you know exactly where the configuration utilites are on your computer (most likely in a console, and most likely named this really long name in a really obscure directory that you'll never remember when you need to)
      8) Cockyness of it's fans. No, I don't have a reason to switch, other than curiosity. Granted, Microsoft zealots are just as bad, and have less well founded opinions, but that doesn't mean free software zealots are right, just a tiny bit less idiodic.
      9) Documentation. The really easy to do stuff seems to be well documented and on every single Linux help site. And a UNIX or Linux pro is certainly a good help. But the step between basic end user and power user seems to be vast, and it's only gotten a little smaller over the years (thank god 90% of my hardware is finally being detected these days at least). Something like the Linux Wiki at LinuxQuestions.org, except on a much larger scale and more all-encompasing would be VERY useful. Even if I've been wrong a few above points (and yes, I've used Linux recently) can you people please update your god damned documentation so I don't have to have these misconceptions.

      I do consider myself truely free. I owe my alligence to no one, and I've been on both sides of the fence, and made up my mind that XP better suited my needs than Linux did. That doesn't mean that Linux is bad, or Windows XP is perfect either.

      --
      I'm the guy with the unpopular opinion
    3. Re:Linux Fans: How Brainwashed are YOU? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      Windows is more modern, because it was made in the 1990s.. Linux is based on UNIX which was created in the 1970s.. 30 years old.

      Linux is hackable. Telnet remote login provides the perfect kind of remote access for hackers already built into the system. Windows is more secure.

      No MS Outlook.. Only unfamiliar programs are available
      No IIS Server, no Frontpage

      Internet Explorer, the most fully functional fully programmable web browser the world has ever seen is not available on Free Software OSes

      Windows is graphical, therefore easier to use and configure. Linux OSes have too much reliance on the ancient command line. DOS is dead, so is the command line, and windows is superior because it has none

      It is a myth that Linux is free.. it has a
      higher Total Cost of Ownership
      http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserversystem/facts /default.mspx

      Linux has only Xwindows, which is slow because a network layer is used for all window management and graphics calls. Windows uses shared memory and direct methods which are faster.

      Good firewall software is available for windows like ZoneAlarm. Linux has only the stripped down built in firewall software product available.

      Windows has some very awesome games like Diablo II. Linux has very few games with poor graphics, and no direct X, only OpenGL which is much slower than the Windows graphics system.

      Windows has very slick office software, MS Office XP 2003... Free Software OpenOffice equivalents are much slower.

      Windows has a central registry and graphical tools for changing configuration options. Linux has a badly organized web of ugly hard to read config files which have to be edited in text files by hand.

      The situation is similar for surfing... Internet Explorer is much faster loading and surfing than Firefox. Unlike Firefox, Internet Explorer under SP2 sports an effective popup blocker, Firefox's is easily defeated by sites using flash scripting.

      Linux has no players and plugin equivalents for many sorts of media contents available in windows... like QuickTime.. Realplayer..

      Hardware drivers are hard to come by.. cannot
      get wireless network cards working in windows.
      video card, drivers for many kinds of
      specialized devices are hard to come by. Availability is much better under windows.

      Linux distributions are cluttered... way too many choices of software: with Windows the user is in control, you pick the products you want from third parties. The additional software is of higher quality because you pay for it or see ads in exchange for the software.

      There is only one distribution of windows.. the choice is clear, and it is a better one than any single Linux vendor's: with windows the most that changes from one OEM to another is some branding and 'extras' but there is very little choice: there are standard components that are all there
      and can be expected to work in a standard way.

      Funded developers put out a less buggy product than Free Software developers. Windows installation is more secure due to existence of CD Key, developers get more funding, and there is less loss due to free downloads of their product.

      Contrast Linux distributions.. no cd key, no product activation: people don't have to buy a retail box and fund development, they can just download Linux off peer to peer networks.

      This shows that Windows makers made better efforts to keep their product commercially viable, and
      therefore, it must be more worthwhile to get.

      Windows is more popular -- face it, everyone speaks the language of windows. Linux OS uses obscure language for use by geeks and the technical elite: Linux is not for use by mere mortals..

      the closest product of value is Apple's Mac OS.

      Now on to development... Windows provides a sophisticated scripting system, Visual Basic Scripting, and Windows Scripting

    4. Re:Linux Fans: How Brainwashed are YOU? by Skye16 · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      So...would you say you fall under number 8, or are you just a complete jackass when it comes to everything in life?

    5. Re:Linux Fans: How Brainwashed are YOU? by Elshar · · Score: 1, Offtopic

      (Yes, this is offtopic, and its not meant as a troll.)

      You really should try FreeBSD. I'm sure you'll love it. I'll even go through pains to tackle each of your problems with linux (most of which are valid even if you're not technical enough to be verbose or 'technically correct'):

      1) The ports tree takes care of this automagically. If you don't want to install from source, the built-in-by-default option is to do pkg_add -r, and it'll go and fetch EVERYTHING and install it. You don't do anything at all. The other option is to install portupgrade, which will install some nice port/package utilities with actual SENSIBLE names like portinstall, pkg_add, etc.. My biggest problem in linux is everyone hacks their own damned management system, and every freakin' tool to use it is some convoluted inside joke. yum? what the hell? apt-get? C'mon. How about pkg_install or package_install or packageinstall? There ya go. That's the beginning of the BSD mentality.

      2) Most BSD's have both from-source and from-binary options for everything, and make it exceedingly clear how to use either. And they BOTH work well. (As well as any system maintaining 20k+ utilities, and their recursive dependancies)

      3) This is actually probably more of a complaint as to how your "distro" sets up X by default.

      4) Almost the same here, but it really helps to not completely bork your kernel to the point where everyone has to re-write drivers for it every couple years from almost scratch. Most BSD's support modular device drivers and loading them on the fly. Linux does too, but good luck finding it. For example, in Gentoo there's 10 directories/files for 'modules' in /etc (WHY?!), and the modules it WILL load are in some wacky directory that includes the specific version of the kernel you're running. Fun stuff. ;)

      5) I agree, this is more of an KDE/GNOME thing in general, but it seems to be the whole mentality of the GNU and Linux OSS. If you don't like something, just fork it and hope everyone follows suit. But if they don't.. Well, you get 3542342 slightly different versions that sortof work together. Kinda.

      6) Absolutely. I think your mindset also affects how easily you can read one groups' manpages over another's though. I can read FreeBSD manpages easily and understand what they're saying, but GPL'd software/Linux ones? Ha. Just a general idea.. Although, FreeBSD DOES have a nice user-friendly handbook + multiple exceedingly active ML's/forums/etc for newbies to get information quickly and easily.

      7) This is where I REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY HATE LINUX!!! Linux is just the kernel, and EVERYTHING ELSE is addon software. Not so with BSD. The kernel + userland is the base software, and ports/packages are the addon software. This is a very important distinction, as the behavior of installing and configuring apps is TOTALLY DIFFERENT. Most things in BSDland go into /usr/local by default, and configs/startup scripts/etc for them go into /usr/local/etc/ and /usr/local/share/ with startups going into /usr/local/etc/rc.d/.sh. One of the nice things about this is that its VERY hard to accidentally 'klobber' the base system. Since its all in /usr, and NO packages go there without your explicit say-so.

      8) I think most FreeBSD users, while zealotous, aren't crazed, rabid fanatics. Most of us subscribe to 'the right tool for the right job', which allows us to use anything, not just things that 'are compatible with license X' just because Mr. Bearded Crazyman said so. Most of us run heterogeneous network envronments. I personally use about 5 different OSes (including a linux box, ironically) where I work.

      9) Same as #6, but there is ALOT of documentation on EVERYTHING. Why? Because EVERYTHING is thought-out and communally developed. Look into any of the developer ML's, and you'll see what I'm talking about. NOONE decides they're going to just patch som

  4. Try again. by Some+Random+Username · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    1) Windows has multiple software installation/uninstallation methods, and with lots of them, it doesn't actually fully uninstall the software like linux package managers do. And dependancy hell is a symptom of someone to lazy to read the rpm documentation, not a problem with rpm. And windows of course has dll hell.

    2)You don't have to use source, at all, ever. Just use a normal distro instead of gentoo. Just because you have a choice, doesn't mean you can complain about the choice you don't want, when the choice you do want is still there.

    3)You can, alt+tab works fine.

    4)Ati cards work fine, I'm using one. And if you want your shitty intel video to work, tell intel to stop being retarded and trying to keep their outdated and crappy technology secret for no reason, or release a linux driver like nvidia and ati did.

    6)Yep, linux documentation sucks huge donkey balls, sorta like windows documentation. So use a BSD instead.

    7)There are graphical tools to let you configure everything you could configure in windows, so use a distro that comes with them. Those of us who aren't stupid like the ability to edit config files from scripts, copy them around to other machines, etc.

    8)If you choose not to use a system based on the fact that some of the people who use it are cocktards, then you will not be able to use anything, ever. Better not drive a car, there's bound to be someone out there you don't like with the same make of car.

    9)Again, linux documentation sucks, this is one of its biggest flaws. But again, its just as bad with windows.

    So all in all you end up with 2 valid complaints, linux has terrible documentation, and there is no required graphical library so every app looks the same. Both these problems exist in windows as well. Try applying the same standards you apply to linux for a change, and you'll realize windows is just as unusable as linux is.

    1. Re:Try again. by Skye16 · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      You definitely have a point that those situations exist on windows. The question, however, is "do they exist on windows to the same degree as linux". I would say no, they don't. But, then again, to act as if Windows is perfect is a bit silly. It's just a bit more useable than Linux for the overwhelming majority of people. With that said, however, things are constantly getting better with each day that passes. I'm not sure it'll ever catch up, per se, but I do think there will come a point where it's useable enough that, overall, it will be a much more viable alternative for the majority of people out there. At least, if you forget the fact that it's really tough to get an OEM brand computer without Windows.

    2. Re:Try again. by grumbel · · Score: 1, Offtopic

      1) That might be right in theory, but from a users point of view everything in windows installs with a double click, worst case scenario is that the user has to unzip a zip file, but even that works with a double click. Linux is far far away from such easy installation and no, apt-get doesn't count, since that doesn't work with third party software, but only with official Debian.

      DLL Hell is for most part a developers problem, seldomly a user has to deal with it, Dependency Hell on the other side bites you with almost every piece of software under Linux.

      2) Even so the distros are huge, they still often lack quite a few more or less important packages, especially when it comes to new stuff.

      3) If you are lucky Alt-Tab works, if you are unlucky it doesn't, while it doesn't work in 100% of the cases in windows either, the chance of success is *far* greater.

      4) Good if ATI card works for you, it however doesn't for lots of other people, 3D acceleration is still not something that 'just works' in Linux and probally wont be for a while.

      7) There are graphical tools for many things, but most of them simply suck, instead of parsing the config file they just overwrite it with their own version and similar fun. While the Windows registry has a ton of problem, it at least provides a consistent way to store config values and avoids such a mess.

      I still choose Linux over Windows any day, but there are quite a few things in Linux that don't really make it all that newbie friendly and Dependency Hell, unescapable fullscreen and such are really something every Linux user will bump into sooner or later and no, switching the distro won't help, since for each problem you solve with a distro change you get dozens of new ones. Linux biggest problem is that there is no perfect distro around, plenty of distros solve plenty of problems very well, but none solves all together.