Desktop Slow to appear After Demoted Domain Controller

[ohaya]

Hi,

I have a Windows 2000 Advanced Server machine that I had originally
installed as a domain controller for some testing. After getting done
with that testing, I didn't need the machine to be a DC, so I ran
DCPROMO and demoted it to a standalone server, including having the
"last machine in forest" checkbox checked.

The demotion seemed to have gone ok, and the machine does seem to work
and is on my Windows network, but I am seeing a couple of anomalies:

1) Whenever I boot the machine, I see the bar on the bottom appear, and
then it takes a really long time before the icons on the desktop appear.

2) Also, when I log in as Administrator, I think that it's still using
the earlier domain Administrator. For example, under Documents and
Settings, I'm pretty sure that it's using the Administrator.myolddomain
folder.


Can anyone tell me how to resolve these problems? Was I suppose to do
something else besides just running the DCPROMO?

Thanks,
Jim

 

[Sundaram Narayanan[MSFT]]

You don't need to do anything else besides DCPROMO. You could check if there
are a lot of persistent network connections (mapped shares on on other
machines) on the machine and remove them to see if it improves desktop
initialization. As far as the profile folders remaining it is ok.

 

[ohaya]

Sundaram,

Thanks, but I don't have any persistent network shares on this machine.

Any ideas about why the system seems to think that I'm logging on as
my_old_domain/Administrator?

Also, I forgot to mention that everytime I boot the machine, I'm getting
a popup saying that at least one service has failed. When I look in
Event Viewer, I am seeing an Event ID 7022, Source Service Control
Manager, and the event says that the Worldwide Web Publishing service
hung. When I look in Service, that service says "Starting", and if I
wait long enough, it says "Started".

This machine has just been acting strangely since the DCPROMO, and I
know I should just do a clean install, but I have a lot of software from
my testing that would be difficult to reproduce.

Jim

 

[Sundaram Narayanan[MSFT]]

If you choose last DC in the domain then the new local administrator could
get setup with the user profile of the earlier domain administrator
(although I am not a 100% sure of this). This would be a reasonable thing to
do because if you were the administrator and went to a lot of trouble to
configure say your desktop icons you expect that the new local administrator
inherits these settings. Now just because you have been set up with the same
user profile it does not mean the system is in other way confused about your
identity because it is still using the local security accounts database to
authenticate you.

If services are having startup issues the most likely problem is that they
were configured to run under a domain account and the domain now of course
doesn't exist.

1. Start/Run/Services.msc
2. Double click each service (if you are paranoid, only WWW Publishing
service) and go to the log on tab
3. Check if it is configured to use a domain account. If it is then change
it to Local System.

If this is not the problem then maybe there are some other errors in the
event logs that are helpful.

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