It's an interesting one ... when XP first released there were lots of hacks flying round like this to swap between upgrade. oem and corporate versions as well as home and pro
they do (did) work - (at least the ones I tried did!) - almost all the files are on the CD .... it's just the config files that change
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/06/03/xp_hac k/
the update path is more important now than it was ... because every hacker in the works "expects" to meet XP
so that is the big disadvantage of doing this
The difference between pro and home is networking, sharing and network security (as well as domain control)
so pro
is much more stable
when it's networked
(when XP launched broadband was still quite rare and routers were almost unheard of in homes) - this changed quite soon after ... but the nuts and bolts are still different.
home still feels "safer" with a modem ... and likes to be the only kid on the net.
just connecting a router introduces doubt .... if there is also another pc in the workgroup it can be confusing to the limited network support - and so less stable.
google "nlite" for instructions on slipstreaming .... and good luck