Hi. Can answer this? A vp ordered a laptop for the owner as he was told to do, but he had windows xp home on it instead of windows xp pro. Now the vp would like the only person in his IT department to use two different websites to change it from xp home to xp pro. Is this legal? Doesn't sound it to me, but I thought that I would ask you guys the pros.....

Sounds like he wants the programmed hacked. Or maybe it is perfectly legal but I can't see microsoft allowing such a thing.

Why does he want XP Pro there's no difference unless he is joining it to a domain. If you have the serial key for xp pro then yes it's legal

he wants to join a domain. No serial number he just advised to do it this other way (probably so the owner doesn't find out that he screwed up).

Well as soon as he does an update windows it's going to fail or shut him out of the operating system if he does not have an xp pro key.

so what you are saying is that it can't even really be done? I take it that without a valid xp pro license key it is illegal for sure?

Won't let you get past the install without a pro key and a home key will not work with pro

i believe what he is trying to do is to get him to somehow back door the system by using two different websites. Sounds to me like it is totally wrong what he asked. The laptop originally came with xp home. I believe what he is wanting the IT department to do (or the one person in particular) is back door the system by using these two websites that he found by probably googling it, and "patching" xp home to be xp pro. How would that be done by changing the registry or is that illegal? If it is illegal what he is asking then the person in IT would NOT do it.

Its basically a short and simple registry hack
The hack will not install and add in all the features from Windows XP Professional that Windows XP Home lacks of, such as Remote Desktop Server and Group Policy Editor (GPedit) utility tools, which have been removed on Windows XP Home edition. Some functions which turned off and disabled via integrated switches which read from registry flag whether it’s Home or Professional edition, such as EFS, RAID support and ability to join domain, may or may not work after migration. Basically, the trick only work to let Windows XP recognizes itself as Professional edition...
Its not recommended as the OS you are using is still XP home and may surely cause problems and compatibility issues when installing updates from microsoft...