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Free Upgrade From XP Home to XP Pro Lite
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."
If you are so bent on having the pro features and are willing to copy all the files off the CD, hack it, and then re-burn it (not to mention making sure not to screw up the bootable ability of the CD), why not just download Windows XP Pro? Both are illegal(take a look at the EULA), and downloading is easier and will still allow you to upgrade to SP2.
that Windows upgrades are cheaper than Linux
That's nothing, I heard that you can make Windows secure by changing 106,351,876 bytes before installing.
Ta-dit-boom!
I know a... um... friend of mine who tried it on his partents' system and it works just peachy!
Are you trying to tell me, MS coders are so amazing that it only took them 2 bytes of data to program all these features?
-SJ53
I thought Crippleware died out years ago , aparently not.
The only things certain in war are Propaganda and Death. You can never be sure which is which though
The EULA of Windows XP is not visible to the buyer before the sale, so it is not part of the contract in many countries. It's still borderline illegal, but the EULA has nothing at all to do with it.
The EULA is not proven in court , however copyright law is .
The only things certain in war are Propaganda and Death. You can never be sure which is which though
The EULA has no legal validity. As long as you don't violate the copyright (which you aren't, since the copy is transitory and for personal use only) or breaking any other laws, you can do what you like with the CD you own.
I am trolling
If I can be modded down for being a troll, can I be modded up for being an orc, or a balrog?
While the legality of EULA agreements may be in dispute, one still can't call making this change an "upgrade". At best it's a hack to gain new functionality which has been disabled. At worst, it's a copyright violation. In both cases, you still don't get Microsoft support - whatever the value of that. The article title really is misleading. --M
What sacrifice of bootability?
1) Rip ISO using WinISO or similar utility. The resulting image retains all Boot Sector info
2) Update/Upgrade/Integrate/Hack installation directory
3) Open the iso created in 1), delete files in image (boot sector info remains intact) and drag and drop new files.
Where's the problem?
Ok, yes in fact they do... somehow. They credit the c't magazine in their first sentence for the report. Shouldn't the editor also credit heise (c't) for that?
Or will we see some RSS-IT-news channel being credited for everything interesting in the near future?
When slipstreaming a SP into Windows 2000 or XP, I've just used "Bart's Boot Image Extractor" (bbie.exe) to extract the boot sectory from the original CD, and burned a bootable CD with Nero. It works just fine.
Morphing Software
I believe the XP "Super CD" floating around the net uses these techniques. It has about 6 different versions of XP all on one CD, ready for install. MSDN, Home, Professional, OEM, etc
Or quite possibly it just replaces the Setupreg.hiv files for which ever version the user chooses to install.
This is only a marginal improvement, I can already change "XP Home" to "XP Pro Lite" by changing only 4 bytes and adding 4 more to the end.
I'd rather just go mug someone on the street and then go buy a Legal Copy.
of Microsoft's business tactics. Not that I blame them, from a business standpoint why have one product when you can have two with none of the extra work? Personally though, I don't agree with selling two versions if the difference is apparently so small, once the public learns of the tricky afoot it's not good publicity for the company (like they need anymore of it).
A two byte hack to get rid of Winblows activation would be more useful...
Oh well, what the hell...
Hey, another slashdot dupe. I read the same article and almost identical comments 7 years ago when someone realized you could change NT 4 Workstation to NT 4 Server by changing a registry entry and rebooting...
Tiered versions are extremely common in the commercial software industry. Customers don't want to pay for features they don't want, while other customers will pay extra for features they demand.
When it is done correctly, it uses the same codebase. The fact that you're able to hack the versioning is completely meaningless.
Well, the industry tricked you into believing that line of shit, but I ain't falling for it.
I'll modify MY purchase in any way I like, thank you.
I'll believe that argument when you show me a music CD with an EULA. Until then, there's such a thing as fair use. And using software for which you've paid still fits that bill.
"I assumed blithely that there were no elves out there in the darkness"
Actually, copyright violation is a civil matter as well.
quidquid latine dictum sit altum videtur.
Now if I can only find the two bits that changes my XP machine back to 2000...
"C++ is to C as Lung Cancer is to Lung"
Won't you guys get in trouble for posting this, The DMCA, the dmca
My driver's license isn't legal until I sign it. The same should apply here. I will not be bound by any contract that I did not sign. If they want these things to be binding, make the customer sign an agreement before money changes hands.
What?
if microsoft is advertising pro and home as two distinct products, when in fact they are not, isn't this false advertising? it's like buying a ford with a V6 and finding that it's really a V8, just two cylinders turned off, and only a ford supplied wrench can open #7 and 8. forgetting linux for a moment, when apple sells Xserve 10 client, it's only 10 apple share clients. there's unlimited samba, ftp, etc., and they're not selling a "pro" version of os x. my guess is that if these features are already built into the OS, then a lawsuit is waiting to happen. i'm sure millions of users would like the features turned on since they're already there.
My problem? I was perfectly gruntled, until some numbnuts came by and dissed me.
Geek #1: Windows really sucks!
Geek #2: I know what you mean. Only an MCSE would use Windows and you know how dumb they are.
Geek #3: I just read on Slashdot that you could upgrade Windows XP home to professional by just changing a few bytes.
Geeks #1 and #2: Sweet, how do you do it?
Price difference? £20.
Product difference? 2 bytes.
The look on a WinXP Pro user's face? Priceless!
Microsoft - how do you want to be robbed today?
VStrider.
Hidden conditions are illegal in a contract, as are unnegotiable terms, changing terms, terms that violated enunicated rights, and just about everything else in an EULA. Hence, an EULA is not a legal contract.
Yes, tell it to your landlord and parking garage. The fact is that nearly everyone signs or implicitly agrees to contracts the violate one or more of these principles but it doesn't stop them from being enforced.
Germans which are interested in it may also buy the latest computermagazine c't where it is described in detail.
Do the slashdot editors think that all information should be considered like the information in radio waves? That once the information comes your way, you can do with it as you please? This would view would make cracking a shareware program perfectly ethical, if we are to believe the slashdot editors are ethical.
How about legality? Any lawyers reading this?
I never understood how that decision worked... The makers of Bnetd never, necessarily, even bought/installed/played a Blizzard game.
VNC is far better? *cough* RDP has a ton of features missing in VNC, such as:
- Sound support
- Automatic color depth and resolution changing support
- Remote printer/serial port access
- Client file access
Remote Desktop is also much speedier. Even with the latest, greatest, fastest version of VNC, Remote Desktop is still much more responsive. On Windows XP, you can even use a certain file from an old Service Pack 2 beta and support multiple remote users on the same machine.and the eaiest way I've found to avoid getting "crap" is to not run as administrator. *poof*, no more problems. I'm surprised more people haven't figured that out yet.
Yeah, that's way harder than using regedit to modify install files and copying the boot sector of the install CD to a new one...
Sincerely,
Your friendly neighborhood slipstreaming advocate
How many bytes do I have to tweak to upgrade my XP Pro to Longhorn?
except in this case you'll need to change 16. ;-)
Just to be a pedantic ass, he's actually only changing two bits. One change is making 02 (00000010) to 00 (00000000) and the other is making 01 (00000001) to 00 (00000000).
funny munging
It's not like it's easier on Adobe to make differerent, variously crippled versions of Photoshop. It's actually more work. They do it because it works for their shareholders: you sell a basic version with features disabled for $x, and make users pay for more features. Yeah, it's the same cost to them to print a CD either way, but the price of things is ALWAYS set by what people are willing to pay, not by what it costs you to make.
At least in the non-free software world. Rather different economics there.
In the US however, merely posting details about a circumvention method (w/few exceptions, such as a scholarly discussion, as in this conversation) is in violation of the DMCA.
See UNIVERSAL CITY STUDIOS, INC. v. SHAWN C. REIMERDES, et al. (ie, the DeCSS case, where 2600 magazine was told they couldn't even link to DeCSS.)
W
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This is my SIG. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
Exactly. IANAL, but it should be possible for one to argue that, as they had not seen (and had little to no means of seeing) the EULA at the time of doctoring the CD, that they were unaware of the conditions imposed therein. Further, as the EULA would not apply at that point, there is little valid argument as to why slightly modifying (for personal use) software one physically owns is bad. This is another example of Microsoft's exploitation of users and, should they pursue this further (removal of comment letters, anyone?) they will continue to turn users toward alternatives.
Not true. Posting links (or the content itself) to a device used to circumvent copyright protection (e.g. an application like DeCSS) is covered under the DMCA, but you can describe a method with no issue. This is why plaintext descriptions of CSS are completely legal.
Disconnect and self-destruct, one bullet at a time.
I realize that *.hiv stands for hive, but I still believe that Microsoft could have come up with a better name. No wonder Windows is so susceptible to infection!
That's because Big Money doesn't like what you're doing. It's a threat to their source of income. Therefore they lobby (bribe) officials to make such action illegal.
The whole game is corrupt. Why anybody has any respect for it anymore is beyond me.
http://profiles.indesolutions.com/paul/tech/archiv es/000064.html p
http://sig9.com/articles/concurrent-remote-deskto
I remember reading through the directions on those two sites and not following either exactly. BTW, the Google search query I used was windows xp sp2 remote desktop concurrent connections
Some sites say you can only have two concurrent users, but that is not so. My original purpose for the hack was to allow myself to RDP in as an admin user, as I do all my daily computing as a non-administrator user. I also gave out access to a few people so they can get on AIM from school.
Just to be a pedantic ass, he's actually only changing two bits.
... ;-)
So I guess that'd make it a two bit hack of a two-bit OS, huh?
You can modify the setupp.ini file in the /i386 folder on the CD for more tricks. You can turn an OEM disk into an upgrade version that will accept OEM keys (and properly activate with Microsoft) my simply copying the setupp.ini from an upgrade version into the /i386 folder, and changing the last three bytes on the "PID=" line to OEM. This little file is the only differential between XP Home OEM, XP Home Retail, and XP Home Upgrade.
I would argue reproducing any of what the Olive Garden passes along as Italian food is a crime. I'd argue it's a crime when the Olive Garden does it.
Hospitaliano indeed.
US Code 17,106:
YMWV if you're not subject to US Copyright law.
you can describe a method with no issue
Not if describing the method is ruled to constitute an "offer" or "provid[ing] to the public" a technology that circumvents the copyright protection. See sections 1201.2(a) and (c) of the DMCA, where it's illegal to
manufacture, import, offer to the public, provide, or otherwise traffic in any technology, product, service, device, component, or part thereof.
2600 was thought to have been providing deCSS simply by linking to it, even without describing the method of its operation. The balance of freedom of speech vs. the clauses in the DMCA that prohibit speech are, IMO, unclear, and HAS been used to quell even spoken descriptions of circumvention techniques.
Dave Touretzky demonstrates in his DeCSS gallery how retarded and incoherant this law's gag on free speech is.
W
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This is my SIG. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
Now someone just needs to find the source code, and recompile it but with "set_bugs=0". ;)
Can someone explain the difference between hacking XP Home to turn it into XP Pro and downloading a warez copy? Is one slightly less wrong than the other?
Alternatively swing by Best Buy and steal a copy.
after all, Microsoft did that with NT Server and NT Workstation. Andrew Schulman had shown that with a few registry tweaks, NT Workstation could be turned into NT Server quite a long time ago. It even fooled server programs like MS SQL Server, Exchange, SNA Server, etc that they were running on NT Server. The only big difference were the support files found on NT Server that NT Workstation did not have.
If someone looks at it hard enough, they can find registry tweaks to turn XP Starter Edition into a non-crippled version. It might resemble XP Home then. Then apply the XP Home tweaks to turn it into an XP Pro Lite type OS.
When you think about it, Microsoft keeps the kernels the same, but makes changes to the registry and support files. Tweak the registry, and you may be able to overcome limitations.
The IP connection limit is built into the TCP/IP stack of XP, but most P2P networks have a modified version that allows the user set their own number of connections, like say 100. I am sure that is against the EULA, but people run it anyway.
The more crippled Microsoft makes an OS, the more people will discover or find or invent a way around the crippling. Take DRM for example, people have already found ways around it, the new DRM on an Intel chip just makes it more of a challenge for people to find a way around it. Most likely someone will find or invent a way to fool the DRM functions that files are legit, via software or something.
Microsoft refuses to understand that it must meet the customers' needs, and that making a system more complex or trying to lock it down more, only upsets the customer. They will either seek underground methods to get around the limitations, find an alternative, use an older version of software/hardware, or just learn to suffer with it. In any case, it causes Microsoft bad PR, and a bad reputation.
Remember, Slashdot does not have a -1 disagree moderation, and no, troll, flamebait, and overrated are not substitutes.
But they didn't reverse engineer it. They simply threw some crap together and called it italian food. I agree with you about the food being a crime, just that it is a different crime (attack on good taste, perhaps?).
No, I don't trust in god. He'll have to pay up front, like everybody else.
Anybody that wants a secure and stable system won't have that computer hooked up to the internet, period
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
Oh like say actually accessing your real desktop and not a completely seperate terminal server profile. For remote access I'd rather access my real desktop thanks.
And ever tried UltraVNC with the Mirror Video Driver? Its just as responsive as RDP.
RDP has advantages over VNC but VNC has come a long way and has nice features like File Transfer, Chat, decent speed, a bunch of different viewer, multiplatform support, and also an encryption plugin. So point out what VNC is missing and I'll do the same for RDP. I don't even use RDP anymore and VNC IS a drop in replacement for it that works very well.
"and the eaiest way I've found to avoid getting "crap" is to not run as administrator. *poof*, no more problems. I'm surprised more people haven't figured that out yet."
You mean regular home user are supposed to be able to figure out that they should reconfig their account to normal user? And when nothing works anymore and they can't add or remove hardware or install any software then what? Face it, until there are a lot of changes made by vendors and MS running as anything other than admin makes life difficult for regular consumers.
If you wanna get rich, you know that payback is a bitch
So what you're saying is...
You, too are missing the point. All that info is there for me to see before I make any transaction. I make an agreement with the person selling the gas before I buy. He's not going to come back afterword to tell me I can't siphon off the gas in my car to put into another car. And he sure can't tell I'm not allowed to put additives to give me better milage(if that were possible). If he did, I would indeed tell him to fuck off. The EULA is hidden away until after the purchase. That's like a taxi driver not telling me the rate until I arrive at the destination(in which case, I would pay what I think is fair). That's why I ask "how much?" before I get in the cab(they don't use meters here). But that was a nice attempt at misinterpretation on your part. Either way, once I'm in possession of something I bought, it's mine to do with as I please.
What?
An entity sells an operating system. After purchasing the operating system, taking it home, opening the package and inserting the media into their computer they are informed that they must agree to an EULA, which is then presented on screen in such a way as nearly all people don't read it.
Some of the patches that are automatically installed by this entity on the purchaser's computer change the EULA.
The Purchaser uses the product in such a way as to not comply with the EULA
Ethical question: Is the purchaser simply stealing, are both parties at fault, or has the producer of the operating system tainted their hands, so that the purchaser's actions are justifiable?
Situation 2:
An entity steals an operating system from the late great Kildall. Using illegal practices to force their (and only their) stolen operating system on consumers, and abusing their monopoly to the extent that consumers pay so much above what would be market value in a competitive environment that the CEO of the entity becomes the unassailably richest man in the world. The entity is convicted of abusing the monopoly, but has become powerful enough that they can manipulate the penalty, and continue to practice in an illegally anti-competitive manner.
A person purchases a product from this entity, and pays for it.
Ethical question: Is paying for the product ethical, given that it increases the money and power of the criminal entity? Or is stealing the only conscionable way to acquire the products of this entity?
But section 107 only says that "the fair use of a copyrighted work ... for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright".
I'm not sure that covers modifying software. Section 117 talks specifically about software, but only grants you permission to copy or adapt software for compatibility/interoperability purposes, and backing up.
If you were allowed to alter software, then the GPL and similar licenses wouldn't need to specifically grant you that permission, and the folks on debian-legal wouldn't require such a grant of permission in any license they review for complience with the DFSG.
Can someone explain the difference between hacking XP Home to turn it into XP Pro and downloading a warez copy?
The former only became illegal when the DMCA was passed. The DMCA makes a lot of previously legal and still necessary actions illegal, so the fact that it's illegal under the DMCA is by itself irrelevant to the morality of the act. So it comes down to the morality of boosting the performance of a factory-crippled product. You can buy products for doing that at any auto-parts store.
The latter? XP Pro includes software that isn't included in XP Home. Even if you bought a copy of XP Home you're not entitled to that. But if Microsoft sold you more than they claimed they did, and you can turn that extra software on?
Violating a EULA may be illegal, but I'm not going to call it unethical.
Pumping gas is consuming a product offered for sale. If you fail to pay for it, it's not a contract violation, it's theft by conversion. The police cannot arrest you for contract violations, and they sure as hell can do so for stealing gas.
I wish people who don't know anything about contract law would shut up about it. There is no such thing as 'magical invisible contracts that apply when you do something'. Contracts do not work that way.
When you pump gas, you accept the offer made to provide gas at that price. That. Is. Not. A. Contract. It is an offer made and acceptance of the offer, aka, a perfectly normal purchase.
It works exactly like every other purchase works, except you consume the goods to indicate acceptance of the offer, instead of handing them money to indicate acceptance of the offer.
And, just so we're clear, an 'offer' has nothing whatsoever to do with a 'contract'. The only way to agree to a contract is to agree to a contract, you can't do it via any random action.
If corporations are people, aren't stockholders guilty of slavery?
You can't release an update to a Microsoft install CD.
They're Read Only.
Your hard drive isn't. Microsoft could release a security update that checks the hard drive for an installation produced by such a cracked install disc and writes files to the hard disk to undo the effect of the crack.
Besides microsoft specifically excludes the operating system as being free of viruses when the sell it to you. So did you active it or did the virus because if microsoft can not tell whether the operating system is free of viruses or not, then any thing that occurs on your computer could be as a result viruses inherent with in the operating system.
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
Try looking up wpakill on google - some network of self referential search engines have broken google's ability to find relevant results for the term.
Shh.
He's right and you're right. That's because copyright violation is both a criminal and civil violation.
fuck you.