coolbrze said:
Sorry to sound like such a novice, but exactly how do I go about doing this? My son put XP Pro on the machine that he had XP Home on...
Don't worry about "Sounding" like a novice.
More than likely it's just the boot.ini that needs to be modified.
You can do this 2 ways.
1st. You can type in the run line : msconfig
This will bring up a console with multiple tabs on the top.
You will want the "Boot.ini" tab.
Once inside the "Boot.ini" tab, you can click on "Check all boot paths". This will examine the files needed for the OS to function. You can then delete the Xp Home string in this .ini file.
2nd. Simply boot up the machine and enter into Windows Xp Pro version. Once inside, open up a windows shell. ex: My Documents.
On the top you will see the menu "Tools". Select tools, then Folder Options / View. You need to uncheck the "Hide Protected Operating System Files". It will prompt you to select Yes or NO. Select Yes.
Once you have done this, Enter into your C Drive and you will see a slightly greyed out file called "Boot.ini"
You can simply double click this file. It will open with notepad.
You will see 2 entries in this file. It will have Windows Xp Professional and a Windows Xp Home Edition on these lines.
You can simply delete the entire line that pertains to Windows Xp Home Edition. After you have deleted this line, just save the file.
And you are done !