Business network access

[Jay Giuliani]

Is there a network client available for those of us that do not have Vista
Business or Ultimate?

 

[Dave]

What do you mean?
Are you referring to Remote Desktop? The Vista Home versions do have the
client, but not the server portion.

 

[Kerry Brown]

Is there a network client available for those of us that do not have Vista
Business or Ultimate?

If you are talking about joining an Active Directory domain then the answer
is no.

 

[Tim Slattery]

Is there a network client available for those of us that do not have Vista
Business or Ultimate?

All Vista versions network just fine. Home Basic and Home Premium
won't join a domain, the other versions will.

 

[Jay Giuliani]

I know.

We have no problem with the peer networks.

At issue is a number of employees purchased laptops for their own use with
an allowance we pay to split the cost.

They then get to keep the laptop after two years and we replace the
machines.

The laptops came with the Home Premium version which does not join a domain
on a business network.

Instead of upgrading to Vista Business or Ultimate, I wondered if there was
a client available which would allow domain logins.

We have an enterprise license for XP SP 2 and thought about blowing out
Vista and installing XP, but when we spoke with the manufacturer of the
laptop they said they could not guarantee that XP would support all the
hardware in the laptops since they were only tested for Vista.

 

[Kerry Brown]

Unfortunately not. You can access most domain resources by setting the
workgroup name to the NETBIOS name of the domain and creating accounts on
the Home clients with the same username and password as their domain user.
The problem is the computers and users can't be managed by group policy this
way.

 

[Richard G. Harper]

No Home operating system has ever been able to join a domain and there is no
way to make it possible, sorry.