Deleting/changing domain names

[John G]

I have a friend who has recently left his place of employment. They had
supplied him with a laptop and offered to sell it to him at the written down
book value. After removing 'sensitive' company information the deal was
done.

The only problem is that when he logs in he is still confronted with all the
old corporate domain names at the login screen (only one of which he can
actually login with without being connected to the network).

How can he/we remove all these domains and transform the laptop into a
single-user, standalone machine? BTW, his current login profile has full
admin rights.

I'm not looking for a "chapter & verse" response here, but if some relevant
links could be posted I'd be most grateful.

 

[Bruce Chambers]

I have a friend who has recently left his place of employment. They had
supplied him with a laptop and offered to sell it to him at the written down
book value. After removing 'sensitive' company information the deal was
done.

The only problem is that when he logs in he is still confronted with all the
old corporate domain names at the login screen (only one of which he can
actually login with without being connected to the network).

How can he/we remove all these domains and transform the laptop into a
single-user, standalone machine? BTW, his current login profile has full
admin rights.

I'm not looking for a "chapter & verse" response here, but if some relevant
links could be posted I'd be most grateful.

Simply log in using the built-in Administrator account and remove
the computer from the domain by adding it to a workgroup. (Right-click
My Computer > Properties > Computername > Change....)

Once you've done this, your friend will no longer be able to access the
user profile created for his domain user account, so you'll have to
create a local user for his daily use. (Right-click My Computer >
Manage > Local Users and Groups > right-click Users > New....)

HOW TO Create and Configure User Accounts in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;279783

Once the new account has been created and logged into, your friend can
copy any desired data files from his old user profile to the new account.

How to Copy User Data to a New User Profile
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;811151

Once the data has been transferred, simply delete the old domain
account's user profile. (Right-click My Computer > Properties >
Advanced > User Profiles - Settings....)


--

Bruce Chambers

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They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -Benjamin Franklin

 

[John G]

Thank you Bruce,
A couple of quick follow up questions:
1) We have no idea what the admin account password is, but since his own
profile has full admin rights presumably we can follow the same procedures?
2) By switching from "domain" to "workgroup" will this rid us of all six
domain options at the login screen once we've created a new user profile?

Cheers and thanks again.