Delayed time for icons,taskbar, & pointer to show up after login

[Guest]

Hello All

We have windows XP machines that are part of a 2003 AD domain. Recently after disconneting one of our old NT 4 Domain Controllers the XP Machines are talking longer to Log on. By log on i mean a user logs in ... the logon screen does it's thing and the user is logged onto the domain like before, but they are left with a desktop with no icons, taskbar, or mouse, all they have is their wallpaper. After about 1 or 2 minutes the screen comes up normally and the user has his icons,taskbar, and mouse pointer. Anyone run into this before? I checked the even log and there are no errors ?

 

[Ron Lowe]

Hello All,

We have windows XP machines that are part of a 2003 AD domain.

Recently after disconneting one of our old NT 4 Domain Controllers the XP
Machines are talking longer to Log on. By log on i mean a user logs in ...
the logon screen does it's thing and the user is logged onto the domain like
before, but they are left with a desktop with no icons, taskbar, or mouse,
all they have is their wallpaper. After about 1 or 2 minutes the screen
comes up normally and the user has his icons,taskbar, and mouse pointer.
Anyone run into this before? I checked the even log and there are no errors
?


First thing to check is DNS settings.

XP differs from previous versions of windows in that it uses
DNS as it's primary name resolution method for finding domain
controllers:

How Domain Controllers Are Located in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;314861

If DNS is misconfigured, XP will spend a lot of time waiting for it to
timeout before it tries using legacy NT4 sytle NetBIOS.
( Which may or may not work. )

1) Ensure that the XP clients are all configured to point to the local
DNS server which hosts the AD domain. That will probably be the
win2k server itself.
They should NOT be pointing an an ISP's DNS server.
An 'ipconfig /all' on the XP box should reveal ONLY the domain's
DNS server.

( you should use the DHCP server to push out the local DNS server
address. )

2) Ensure DNS server on win2k is configured to permit dynamic updates.

3) Ensure the win2k server points to itself as a DNS server.

4) For external ( internet ) name resolution, specify your ISP's DNS server
not on the clients, but in the 'forwarders' tab of the local win2k DNS
server.

On the DNS server, if you cannot access the 'Forwarders' and 'Root Hints'
tabs because they are greyed out, that is because there is a root zone (".")
present on the DNS server. You MUST delete this root zone to permit the
server to forward unresolved queries to yout ISP or the root servers:

HOWTO: Remove the Root Zone (Dot Zone)
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=298148

The following articles may assist you in setting up DNS correctly:

Setting Up the Domain Name System for Active Directory
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;237675
HOW TO: Configure DNS for Internet Access in Windows 2000
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;300202