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I installed XP Pro SP2 on a newly formatted C: drive on the same Dell Dimension 8100 computer that had been previously running XP Pro. It worked fine.

I went to Update.Microsoft.com and installed all the high priority fixes, including SP3, and most of the other updates.

Now, the computer reports that it is running XP home!

What happened? More importantly, how do I get back to XP Pro?

added comments:

  1. My installation disk is an original Dell OEM disk labeled "Microsoft Windows XP Professional".

  2. prodspec.ini contains:

[SMS Inventory Identification] Version=1.0

[Product Specification] Product=Windows XP Home Edition

Version=5.0 Localization=English ServicePackNumber=0 BitVersion=40 [Version] DriverVer=07/01/2001,5.1.2600.0

  1. I looked for gpedit.msc and it does not exist. I also checked a backup I did after first installing XP pro and it did not exist there either.

  2. Finally, I checked prodspec.ini from the same backup. It also says XP home.

  3. So is it really possible that the original Dell OEM installation disk has the wrong version on it? (Can I look at any file on the CD itself to tell for sure?

Breakthrough
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Mark T
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2 Answers2

1

I have experienced this same issue. I recently reinstalled Windows XP Professional on a 5-year old Dell desktop using the disk from Dell, and thought I was going insane when I realized that XP Home was actually installed. After wasting a bunch more time on this, I finally figured out that Dell had shipped a mislabeled disk. If you've got another XP Pro disk, try it. Otherwise, I guess you could try contacting Dell.

Wes
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0

Open Notepad, create a file with "reg" extension and paste in the following text (pay attention on number N in CurrentControlSet00(N), where N max number of your "CurrentControlSet00") if, N equal for example 3, than:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet003\Control\Pr­oductOptions]
"ProductType"="WinNT"
"ProductSuite"=hex(7):50,00,65,00,72,00,73,00,6f,00,6e,00,61,00,6c,00,00,00,00,\00


Run it, restart system and press F8 and choice "Last Known Good..."

Gareth
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Ratin
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