Recently bought-in a batch of budget machines with OEM XP Home because
management don't want to spend too much on this project. Unfortunately they
came with Norton and other foistware, so rather than trying to remove this
junk I formatted and used the I386 folder to do a clean reinstall.

Reinstall and activation went OK but every time new software is installed,
we get a complaint from Windows File Portection (SFC) that system-files are
the wrong versions, and it demands the Windows CD (Which never existed
anyway!) Strange thing is that it demands an XP PROFESSIONAL CD, though this
is definitely XP Home.

In fact, It won't accept any XP CD as a suitable source, or the original
I386 contents.

This is obviously due to some kind of adulteration that OEM has done to the
original install-files, perhaps they customised them using XP Pro files by
mistake.

With hindsight (wonderful thing!) I should've used a kosher OEM XP Home disc
instead.

Anyway, question is, how might we stop this? I could hack SFC to disable it
altogether, but a proper fix would be bettter.

You may be prompted to insert a Windows XP Professional CD
when you run the System File Checker tool in Windows XP Home Edition
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/897128/en-us

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows - Shell/User
Microsoft Community Newsgroups
news://msnews.microsoft.com/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Ian" wrote:

| Recently bought-in a batch of budget machines with OEM XP Home because
| management don't want to spend too much on this project. Unfortunately they
| came with Norton and other foistware, so rather than trying to remove this
| junk I formatted and used the I386 folder to do a clean reinstall.
|
| Reinstall and activation went OK but every time new software is installed,
| we get a complaint from Windows File Portection (SFC) that system-files are
| the wrong versions, and it demands the Windows CD (Which never existed
| anyway!) Strange thing is that it demands an XP PROFESSIONAL CD, though this
| is definitely XP Home.
|
| In fact, It won't accept any XP CD as a suitable source, or the original
| I386 contents.
|
| This is obviously due to some kind of adulteration that OEM has done to the
| original install-files, perhaps they customised them using XP Pro files by
| mistake.
|
| With hindsight (wonderful thing!) I should've used a kosher OEM XP Home disc
| instead.
|
| Anyway, question is, how might we stop this? I could hack SFC to disable it
| altogether, but a proper fix would be bettter.

That looks very likely, I'll check it out next time I'm onsite.

Thanks, and have a good festive season.