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August 24, 2005
Windows Remixes
Windows has its detractors. Windows also has its fans. Much like how the fan fiction surrounding a literary franchise occasionally reinvents its subject in new and interesting ways, Windows users have gone about providing remixed versions of the operating system everyone loves to hate.
Wired News ran a story about Windows remixes currently available on the software underground. These remixes enhance Windows by paring it down to the bare minimum or by modifying it to serve a specific purpose. There are Knoppix LiveCD-like distributions, which make it easy to boot a computer into a diagnostic mode, as well as bare bones versions such as "Windows XP SP2 Lite Edition". All these redistributions violate Microsoft's license terms and are essentially fly-by-night operations. Moreover, Microsoft is kind enough to remind you that accepting modifications from anyone other than the original publishers of Windows, themselves, poses a security risk.
If you have the crippled Windows XP Home Edition and you continually ache for something better, you can assuage some of that pain legally. An article I came across the other day describes how to convert your copy of Windows XP Home into Windows XP HomePro. This HomePro Edition re-enables those features that had been crippled in Windows XP Professional to yield Windows XP Home. Most importantly, it makes your formerly XP Home computer start believing that it runs Windows XP Professional. Of course, the HomePro edition does not provide all the features of Windows XP Professional, but it definitely adds back several useful features that power users miss.
Posted by Vishy at August 24, 2005 11:59 PM