Logging into 2000 domain using Windows XP Home

one of the nice features not in XP is the ability to have drives mapped etc. with a login script - since this feature was in Win95/98/ME and probably 3.11 (or was that just the Novell client running the script?)

Anyway it is just marketing to force business users to use PRO. Ha ha - to anyone who thought XP would unite business users and home users.
IMHO in some respects Pro/Home are further apart than other M$ home/work OS's - really sickening for those of us who remember that NT4 workstation was a few files and registry settings from becoming NT4 server - and the way if you put 3.51 on top of 3.11 most of the apps would still work in either when you dual booted.

Open Network Neighbourhood* - click on the server and open the Netlogon folder - create a short cut to the login script you normally use on the desktop (or just copy the file) - thus you can now do manually what was done for you previously in all other versions of windows that come with networking built in (3.1 and below need not apply).

*network neighbourhood - the old fashoned way of doing things - one click and you can see the network - instead you only have to click through four or five steps - till you see the domain or workgroup you wanted to see - right click - create shortcut on desktop - rename to network neighbourhood..

Why do you want full membership - you haven't paid Bill for it.

Or you could UPGRADE to Windows 2000 home.

No I'm talking about the €120 difference between OEM Home/PRO (more if you get either retail)

While I'm on about licenses - CAL's
AFAIK with MAC's you only pay for the first 10 client licenses on a server, with SAMBA you don't pay at all, and with SQL they have changed the rules - if you want more than 30 clients (and you can't cheat by using terminal server or citrix) you should by a license for the processor that SQL will run on (so much for the upgrade paths) and the early rumours on windows 2003 server is that extra functionality will be added - but with extra licensing costs..

RANT:
You can buy a PC with a modem and with XP and Works on it - and share to up to 15 others.So you can email someone your little database.

If you want to do the same thing in a business enviroment where you add stuff into a central dB and then can email a report on it is a little more expensive ++120 for Pro ++230 for Office Std ++ more for Access ++for CAL ++for Exchange CAL ++ SQL client license (and you have to apportion a part of the cost of the server licenses to each client) - we've got to a stage where hardware costs are far less than software costs for the vast majority of Business users.. (esp if anyone can figure out how to get a real refund on the preinstalled works/windows)