can xp home network into xp pro network domain environment

That is a basic difference between the two versions and one of the only selling points for the pro version, so I doubt that there is a "patch".

Although it's true that you can NOT connect XP Home to a Domain, you can gain access to some domain resources using pass-through authentication. It's a trade-off, though...even if you use the procedures below to gain access, there are several (often important) advanced domain features only found in XP Pro (e.g. offline files, better resource access controls, group policy, etc.). There's also plenty of other domain functionality that won't be available...e.g. you won't be able to access email on a LAN Exchange Server (though, thinking out loud, yes an admin could configure Exchange 2003 to allow Exchange Over the Internet via HTTP).

To use XP Home to access data (& possibly printers...not sure as I haven't tried it) on a Windows domain server, go to Control Panel -> System -> Computer Name tab, and set the Workgroup name EXACTLY the same as your domain name (not the name of the domain server).

Since you aren't able to join the domain (which handles the users & passwords for all network systems in a central database on the domain controllers[s]), you now need to make sure your XP Home system's login uses a username & password defined IDENTICALLY in the User Management on the domain controller (your domain admin will set this up).

You should then be able to use My Network Places to access shared network resources on your XP Home system.

(Note: I haven't personally tried this when using a Windows Server 2003 Domain Controller, but it most likely works fine. With NT & 2000 servers it should definitely work.)


Microsoft: Choosing between Home Edition and Professional

Microsoft: Four Editions of Windows XP Compared

cheers monger i understand the consept but the option to name a workgroup idendical to the domain name is not available, the server is the domain controller and the file server.

I don't know how else to say that, Coxy. I've pointed out the place to set your workgroup name. You want to give it the name of the domain you're trying to connect to.

what i'm saying is you cannot create a workgroup on the domain controller with the same name as the domain the option is not there

You set the workgroup name on the XP Home computer.

The domain controller uses the domain name. The XP Home computer uses its workgroup name. They have to be identical.

FYI, if this is for work-related stuff you'd be a lot better off getting the company to pay for an XP Pro upgrade. You'll spend more time (money) tweaking the laptop to work with the network than you would on an upgrade.

i just installed XP pro, when i download products from the sites to restore them back on my PC the exe file is a page insted of an installer... did i miss some files..PRO stinks 4 now

XP Pro licencing cost
I am in a similar situation and would like to consider upgrading to XP Pro. Anybody know the best place to buy licencing

Networking XP Home with XP Pro
If you have win xp home edition, this is the only way to get over the problem as the local settings & sedurity policy are not available in Administration Tools.
As far as I know, user rights policies applies to WinXP Home as well, you just don't have a builtin GUI tool to see/change them.

You should be able to set/remove those privileges with the Windows 2003 resource kit command line tool ntrights.exe.

Ntrights.exe is in the free Win2k3 resource kit:

Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit Tools
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=4544
or
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...&displaylang=en
The kit will install on WinXP or later.

After installation, click on: Start, All Programs, Windows Resource Kit Tools, Command Shell

Then enter the following commands. (Attention: they are case sensitive.)

net user guest /active:yes
ntrights +r SeNetworkLogonRight -u Guest
ntrights -r SeDenyNetworkLogonRight -u Guest

The first command enables network access for Guest, the two subsequent ones change two different policies to allow network access for Guest.

This has been confirmed to work by several users.