I have 4 PCs on a wireless network. The 3 PCs with XP home work fine but the PC with XP Professional doesnt enable sharing with the XP Home PCs. I have gone through the network setup wizard so many times, turning file and printer sharing on....nothing works, The XP home PCs can see the XP Prof PC but cannot access the share files or the printer attached to the XP Prof PC. I have followed all the responses to my last question on Home Network problem,....none of the suggestions work. The only solution I am left with is to downgrade the XP Prof PC back to XP home. Can this be done? I only have the manufacturers copy of XP Home which doesnt give me the Windows repair option.
2006-10-23 00:04:27 · 9 answers · asked by xxlily 1 in Computers & Internet ➔ Computer Networking
Hi,
From a licencing point of view you cannot downgrade from WinXP Pro to WinXP Home.
Manufacturer copies (OEM) of anything from Microsoft can only be installed on one PC and live and die there. This is according to the EULA.
You would need to do a fresh install to go from Pro to Home.
As you no doubt know, WinXP Pro has extra features above and beyond WinXP Home. I find the network wizard terrible in Windows and so do everything manually. If your WinXP Pro is NTFS formatted make sure you don't use any of the additional security features as this can cuase nightmares when trying to share files with FAT32 systems. There are tons of howtos on Microsoft's site regarding networking of Pro and Home. Which I won't go into as I think you're sick of trying and just want to know about the downgrading ;)
HTH
2006-10-23 00:25:58 · answer #1 · answered by Conspiracy 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
First Suggestion: I had this same problem. Look on the computer with pro and see if the hard drive is NTSF, or if the home ed is FAT32. You need to make all the hard drives NTSF or all FAT32.
Second Suggestion: Another thing is the error that the xp pro computer is giving you when you are in the my network places folder. Do a google on that error you should find some good answers. A great site is experts exchange.
2006-10-23 00:08:55 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Very Easy. Go to control panel-----add and remove programmes. Unistall XP Pro...this will revert your computer to XP Home after you reboot.
Regarding the networking issue, try adding the login accounts from all the three XP Home comps onto the XP Pro and enable them access. This means you can now access the comp and browse folders easily as long as you are logged in with the account you added.
2006-10-24 02:47:53 · answer #3 · answered by dipopo 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
To downgrade u need to unistall/format the c:\ drive. seach google to help with the unistall/format. Then u can place any other O/S on ur pc. I did it with my 2nd pc, it had WIN XP Pro on. Got rid one day and replaced it with WIN ME. Think i formatted it through the boot up disk that is required for WIN ME.
Anyways, file sharing shouldnt be a problem cos i now have WIN XP Pro on my 2nd pc and WIN XP Home on my 1st pc. They both see each other and can share files etc, i guess if u allow that option.
hope that helps
2006-10-24 12:06:47 · answer #4 · answered by nickste5 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
1st, try disabling the firewall on the winxp pro and home pcs.
2nd, try updating your winxp home and pro to service pack 2.
3rd, try giving the winxp pro pc with the same workgroup name as the hom pcs.
the above 3 methods should solve the problem but if still cannot solve, then you might need help from a technician or a friend who is good at pcs and network.
good luck!
ps: you may need a new copy of the winxp home cd and the cd key.
mercury of love
2006-10-23 00:20:52 · answer #5 · answered by mercury of love 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
this is completely advantageous. I somewhat have a twin booted computer With residing house windows Vista perfect And Microsoft Xp professional perfect is for all my paintings and crap Xp professional is for my gaming. desire I Helped.
2016-12-05 03:22:59 · answer #6 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
when you mean you want to network the pc's do you mean you want to see what is on the hard drive of the other pc's if so have you done this, start, my computer, right click local drive C, left clicked on management and security and enable sharing if the local drive, i have done it on my two laptops, one is ntfs and the other is fat32 and we can access both local drives
2006-10-23 03:28:57 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
you cant replace it but when you install home when you start up you can choose if you use proffesional or home coz i have both at home
2006-10-23 00:19:16 · answer #8 · answered by rico 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
i doubt it. and why do it anyway. windows vista is coming in the new year there is no point.
2006-10-23 00:12:09 · answer #9 · answered by demonstudiosdja 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋