turn windows 2000 (XP)pro into windows 2000 server (.Net server)!

SoopaStar · March 26th, 2002, 12:53 AM

Read an article on the Register today that discusses a software called NTSwitch. It shows you that the binaries in Windows 2000 Pro and Windows 2000 Server are the same. All it does is apply some differences to the Windows Registry and once you reboot you machine, you now have Windows 2000 Server.

Its a very interesting concept. It really makes one wonder why thre is a HUGE price differences between the two softwares. You are paying 1000's more for a registry change?
I haven't played around much with it yet so I don't know how many client licenses.

Like the subject says, this software also converts XP Pro to the .net server. Interesting eh? This also works backwards. Server can become the workstations. Read the snippets in the Reg article. good stuff.

Paul

the link on the reg for the file works. If it goes down and you want to play with it, shoot me an email.

vass0922 · March 26th, 2002, 01:02 AM

I'm guessing the kernel maybe a bit different.

SoopaStar · March 26th, 2002, 01:05 AM

No...all versions of NT4 and Win2k use the same kernels. Maybe some VXD's or DLLs are different, but I ran the program already and it boots up into 2k server. Splash screen, login, everything seems to be server.

Paul

ocit · March 26th, 2002, 01:13 AM

i would like to play with it but i herd it causes a memory leak. i was too late in dling it cause they pulled it.

KraM · March 26th, 2002, 01:28 AM

I used resource hacker to look at the resource file in my Win2k kernel and it had all the different boot screens for different versions of window 2000.

SoopaStar · March 26th, 2002, 01:42 AM

found one flaw: help files. But MS cures that by supplying them here:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000...es/default.asp

ocit · March 26th, 2002, 02:08 AM

i did it to try, and it booted fine , the boot screen said just windows no xp or .net.system properties showed it as windows xp server. but when i ran ut it locked up and restarted, so i switched it back. it was nice to experiment.

CMonster · March 26th, 2002, 04:19 AM

I'm guessing that this is in violation of the license agreement -am I correct or does Microsoft condone this method?

vass0922 · March 26th, 2002, 04:30 AM

so you think because of a few GUI changes that all of a sudden its what it says it is??!?!

I know it takes a small hack to turn off the WinNT workstation 10 concurrent user limit...

but to say that its going from 2k server to .NET server with some GUI changes... sounds pretty funky to me.
GUI changes are pretty easy, I remember a thread in SysOpt where people were changing all sorts of stuff... I in particular remember OutPatient changing his Device Manager to Device Mangler...

JimG · March 26th, 2002, 01:05 PM

vass, yeah, it was hex editing ... still have the URL in the favorites. Can't really do it in NT/2k because the file is written differently (maybe due to NTFS?). I don't know if Outpatient has tried this in 2k.
As for the idea of switching this stuff, seems interesting. Need a spare box to try it on.