Upgrade MCE to XP Pro?

I'm working on an MCE 2005 box for my employer that I'd like to use on a
domain. Having dug around this newsgroup, I see that it's possible to do
that, but my boss has already purchased an XP Pro upgrade. When I try to
perform the upgrade, I get the message,"The CD key you entered is invalid".
I've followed the instructions in the KB article 310637 to no avail.

Am I barking up the wrong tree? I'd like to avoid wiping the box and
installing XP Pro from scratch, and I don't want to use some hack to get the
box on the domain. Suggestions?

tinytim1987
Sat Apr 19 20:23:00 PDT 2008

sounds to me like you just need to order another key from microsoft.

"qgs" wrote:

> I'm working on an MCE 2005 box for my employer that I'd like to use on a
> domain. Having dug around this newsgroup, I see that it's possible to do
> that, but my boss has already purchased an XP Pro upgrade. When I try to
> perform the upgrade, I get the message,"The CD key you entered is invalid".
> I've followed the instructions in the KB article 310637 to no avail.
>
> Am I barking up the wrong tree? I'd like to avoid wiping the box and
> installing XP Pro from scratch, and I don't want to use some hack to get the
> box on the domain. Suggestions?

Frank
Sat Apr 19 20:37:33 PDT 2008

I would backup any data and do a fresh install of XP Pro. SP3 is coming is
not compatible with MCE joined to domains with the hack.

--
Frank McCallister SBS MVP
MCP Microsoft Small Business Specialist
COMPUMAC

"qgs" <qgs@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:8DA9DCD0-5B8F-4853-AB72-846AF3F457A7@microsoft.com...
> I'm working on an MCE 2005 box for my employer that I'd like to use on a
> domain. Having dug around this newsgroup, I see that it's possible to do
> that, but my boss has already purchased an XP Pro upgrade. When I try to
> perform the upgrade, I get the message,"The CD key you entered is
> invalid".
> I've followed the instructions in the KB article 310637 to no avail.
>
> Am I barking up the wrong tree? I'd like to avoid wiping the box and
> installing XP Pro from scratch, and I don't want to use some hack to get
> the
> box on the domain. Suggestions?

yaddayadda93
Sun Apr 20 22:10:00 PDT 2008



"qgs" wrote:

> I'm working on an MCE 2005 box for my employer that I'd like to use on a
> domain. Having dug around this newsgroup, I see that it's possible to do
> that, but my boss has already purchased an XP Pro upgrade. When I try to
> perform the upgrade, I get the message,"The CD key you entered is invalid".
> I've followed the instructions in the KB article 310637 to no avail.
>
> Am I barking up the wrong tree? I'd like to avoid wiping the box and
> installing XP Pro from scratch, and I don't want to use some hack to get the
> box on the domain. Suggestions?

I'm no expert, but I'm almost positive you can't upgrade from MCE to XPPro.
I went through the same issues, and I ended up using an MCE 2005 box at work
just like you. The only difference is that I did use the hack to join a
domain and it worked beautifully with no fuss or muss (although the other
post about SP3 not being compatible makes me nervous). If the boss bought the
upgrade rather than the full version of Pro, I'm pretty sure it's worthless
for your purposes, and you might as well use the hack (concerns about SP3
aside). If he bought the full version, you might as well use it. Good luck.