Windows XP Professional for laptops

[Guest]

Hello, I have a laptop compaq 700 with a celeron processor of 800 MHz and 128
Mb of RAM, and rigth now I have windows xp HOME EDITION on it. The problem is
that I tried to connect it to the intranet of the company I work in, and
someone told me that I could only do that with windows XP Professional
Edition. Is that true? That person also told me that if I install windows XP
Professional Edition in my laptop and tried to turn it on without connecting
it to the intranet or the Internet, it wouldn´t start. If that is true I
cannot install Win XP Pro because sometimes at my friend's houses I use my
laptop without connecting it no any net at all and witn home edition I have
had no problem with that. Please help me, I would really like to be able to
connect my laptop to the intranet while at work, and to the Internet at home
(I use Ethernet to connect at home, to a broadband Internet connection) and I
also want to be able to use my computer when I am not able to connect it to
any net at all. Thaks for the help.

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

Hello, I have a laptop compaq 700 with a celeron processor of 800 MHz
and 128 Mb of RAM, and rigth now I have windows xp HOME EDITION on
it. The problem is that I tried to connect it to the intranet of the
company I work in, and someone told me that I could only do that with
windows XP Professional Edition. Is that true?

Only XP Pro can join a domain - XP Home can connect to resources on a
domain, but can't join it.

That person also told
me that if I install windows XP Professional Edition in my laptop and
tried to turn it on without connecting it to the intranet or the
Internet, it wouldn´t start. If that is true I cannot install Win XP
Pro because sometimes at my friend's houses I use my laptop without
connecting it no any net at all and witn home edition I have had no
problem with that.

I think you misunderstood. You just have to connect it once to the Internet
to activate it after upgrading.

Please help me, I would really like to be able to
connect my laptop to the intranet while at work, and to the Internet
at home (I use Ethernet to connect at home, to a broadband Internet
connection) and I also want to be able to use my computer when I am
not able to connect it to any net at all. Thaks for the help.

Do you actually need to join the domain for some reason? Is this going to
be a company laptop? As I said, you can still access resources on the domain
if you pass along the credentials for the domain when mapping a drive,
etc....

That said, if you do decide to use XP Pro, the upgrade is quite simple - and
you can still use your computer "off the domain" when away from it. Just
don't change from domain to workgroup or you'll lose your login & profile.

 

[Quaoar]

Only XP Pro can join a domain - XP Home can connect to resources on a
domain, but can't join it.


I think you misunderstood. You just have to connect it once to the
Internet to activate it after upgrading.


Do you actually need to join the domain for some reason? Is this
going to be a company laptop? As I said, you can still access
resources on the domain if you pass along the credentials for the
domain when mapping a drive, etc....

That said, if you do decide to use XP Pro, the upgrade is quite
simple - and you can still use your computer "off the domain" when
away from it. Just don't change from domain to workgroup or you'll
lose your login & profile.

NetSwitcher (Google for it), will handle the profile switching. It is
not free, $10 last time I looked, but works well at what it does.

Q