Remove systems from a domain?

[grinch843]

Hi,

I've got a client who is moving some computers to a new location. Right now the computers are on a domain, but the new location will be setup as a workgroup, is there an easy way to pull these system off the domain and switch them to a workgroup without losing their current settings, outlook data and whatnot? Would copying the username.domain account into one of the local accounts work?

Thanks....

[atari37]

Hi,

I've got a client who is moving some computers to a new location. Right now the computers are on a domain, but the new location will be setup as a workgroup, is there an easy way to pull these system off the domain and switch them to a workgroup without losing their current settings, outlook data and whatnot? Would copying the username.domain account into one of the local accounts work?

Thanks....

I don't know if there's a simple way to automate this process but it is quite simple...just right click My Computer -> Properties - go to Computer Name tab (assuming these are all Windows XP boxes). Left click on the "Change" button and click on the "Workgroup" radio button, Name the Workgroup whatever you want and click okay. It will require a reboot.

Once the system comes up, login locally and move the user's domain profiles to the local account.

You can do this by going right clicking My computer again and going to Advanced tab, click on Settings under user profiles, select the old profile and move it to the new local account. Doing this should move all their settings.

[atari37]

One more thing...Before you take the computers off the domain, make sure you know the local user login credentials.

[grinch843]

Thanks for the info, I'll give it a shot.......

[IcemanND]

Just removing the machine from the domain and putting it into the workgroup will break the user accounts. The domain account profiles stored on the machine will not be accessible. If you want to use the domain profiles with local accounts create the local account but don't log in with it and then use the profilemove utility form microsoft or PROFWIZ to associate the domain profile with the new local account. Then remove the machine from the domain and put it into a workgroup.