ITDefensePatrol Aug 7, 2006   12:23 AM GMT

I apparently have sufficient rights to switch from domain to workgroup. Now unable to login: username & password only. Doesnt provide choose domain anymore. thus can't login. thus can't network or join.

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Astronomer Aug 7, 2006   2:02 PM GMT

You need to log in as a local administrator of the machine. then you can make the required changes.

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Airwrck Aug 7, 2006   3:23 PM GMT

If I understand correctly, you now cannot login to the computer desktop at all, no matter what username/password combination you use? Since it was once joined to a domain, your username and password combination might still be cached (without the domain box in the login box). You might also try "administrator" with no password (the default out-of-box login for XP machines) unless you ever logged into that PC as administrator when joined to the domain. In that case, you'd need the domain "administrator" password. Also try logging in using Safe Mode as administrator with no password. Otherwise, you are relegated to using a registry recovery boot disk to reset the (local machine) administrator password. This problem illustrates two really important issues in Windows XP Professional domain networked installations - 1. Create a local administered account on the computer for a back-door emergency access. 2. Unjoining the computer from a domain can be very hazardous, and should not be done without understanding the ramifications.

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Ghigbee Aug 7, 2006   4:23 PM GMT

Be careful if you use the system restore point. If the restore point is far enough in the past it may cause issues because the laptop will think it is on the domain, but the password for the computer account will not match with the password stored in the active directory. You may be further ahead to have your admin delete the computer account from the domain and then rejoin the laptop to the domain. This will keep the passwords in sync for the computer account. HTH

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9949748886 Aug 8, 2006   8:34 AM GMT

When you disjoin the laptop from domain the account of the laptop in Active Directory will be disabled/removed. Even if you restore the laptop to a previous point your laptop's account in domain is disabled. There is no way to get it back except that the domain administrator with the rights to create a computer account in the domain should do it for you. Contact the domain admin and ask him to join your laptop to the domain again.

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Marcola Aug 8, 2006   9:03 AM GMT

9949748886 was incorrect in saying that your computer is automatically removed/disabled because it isn't if you were disconnected from the network when you removed the machine from the domain. AD has no way of knowing what the status of your machine is since the laptop wasn't communicating with AD at the time of the removal. There are several things you can do in this case. 1. You can rename your machine and then join it to the domain under the new name. 2. You can manually delete the machine account in AD then rejoin the domain under the same name. You will need for replication to complete in AD before rejoining. (You can use ADSIEDIT to search for any instance of your machine name that may still be in the metadata of AD. If you find any you can remove them but be very careful using this tool). Have fun...

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Astronomer Aug 8, 2006   12:22 AM GMT

You might want to use a password recovery program like erd commander to reset the local administrator password to something you know. Then you will have the needed rights to rejoin the domain.

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Colditzz Aug 17, 2006   1:28 PM GMT

If you rename the laptop and then try to re-join it to the domain, that will cause you problems as well, the machine SID will still be the same, even though the name may be different, the best option is to have the domain admin delete the computer account and then re-join it to the domain for you.

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