What to Choose : Windows XP Home OR Professional????

[beedubaya]

Depends. As the first poster said, if you need the encryption and filesharing features of Pro, then get it. If not, save yourself some money and get Home.

 

[EricB]

get mce. it is xp pro with extra's, but cheaper than xp home

Yes that should work fine.

Sorry, did my research and found that my A+ teacher has no clue what he's talking about(but what he said seemed logical at the time) and I've found that MCE is pro with just a few features removed.

it only has one feature removed. the abililty to join a domain. this is how you fix that

how to join mce to a domain

Insert Windows XP CD.
Start > Run > X:\i386\winnt32.exe /cmdcons
(replace X: with the appropiate drive letter)
Acknowledge prompt by clicking 'Yes'.
Skip updating process by clicking 'Cancel' or by pressing 'Esc'
After installation, acknowledge success msg. by clicking 'Ok'
Start > Shutdown > Restart
At boot menu, select 'Microsoft Windows Recovery Console'
Select proper installation to log onto (default: 1) and press 'Enter'
(If prompted, enter Administrator password and press 'Enter')
Type (without quotes) and press enter: 'cd system32\config'
Type (without quotes) and press enter: 'copy SYSTEM C:'
Type (without quotes) and press enter: exit
At boot menu, select 'Windows XP Media Center Edition'
Log into Windows and play a game of minesweeper (very important)
Start > Run > Type: 'regedit' and press enter
Click on 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE'.
File > Load Hive...
Browse and select C:\SYSTEM
Specify key name 'BANANA' and click OK
Expand: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > BANANA > WPA > MedCtrUpg
On the right-hand side, double-click IsLegacyMCE value
Change selected value to 1 and click Ok. (THAT IS NOT AN L!)
Click on BANANA subkey (under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE).
File > Unload Hive. Confirm.
Start > Shutdown > Restart
At boot menu, select 'Microsoft Windows Recovery Console'

Select proper installation to log onto (default: 1) and press 'Enter'
(If prompted, enter Administrator password and press 'Enter')
Type (without quotes) and press enter: 'cd '
Type (without quotes) and press enter: 'copy SYSTEM C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM'
(Yes, you want to overwrite - Go ahead and do it)
Type (without quotes) and press enter: 'del SYSTEM'
Type (without quotes) and press enter: 'exit'
At boot menu, select 'Windows XP Media Center Edition'

Join domain.