Help! No Domain Drop Down after changing to HomePC Domain

[Janet in Atlanta]

Please help what terrible thing I did!

Trying to connect my work laptop to my new home network
(XP) I Changed the domain on my laptop to my new home
network domain thinking I could switch between the two.
It told me it could not remove my old domain and asked me
to reboot. Now when I reboot, I can not get my domain
drop down box. When I try to log in using my old user
name and password it will not let me in. I tried a
thousand differnt things to get logged in including using
the old domain name\user id, new doman\ user id and
password, NOTHING WORKS! Help!

The sad part is now I realize I didn't have to do that at
all because my home desktop can see my laptop...I just
can't get into the laptop to change my settings back to
the original, I'm in huge trouble if I don't
get this fixed pronto!

Thanks in advance for your advice!

Janet <sigh>

 

[Karl Levinson [x y] mvp]

I'm wondering if maybe you changed your laptop from a domain to logging in
locally e.g. changed it from a domain to a workgroup. If you selected your
computer's name in the "domain" dropdown, then this is the case.

XP is not a domain or a domain controller. To have a domain at home, you
would need a windows 2000, 2003 or NT server set up as a domain controller.
Otherwise, you have to log in using local accounts on each computer and
manually set up and synchronize identical login IDs and passwords yourself
on other computers if you want to do file sharing between multiple computers
at home [and configure the computers to be in a workgroup instead of a
domain].

No matter what the problem is, I would think that knowing what the local
Administrator ID and password is and using them to log in locally should
help. When you're logging into a domain, these accounts are often never
used, so it could be that you may never have known or used these. Whoever
installed Windows on your laptop should know what the local admin ID and
password is. Often the account name is Administrator.

If you need to be able to rejoin the computer to your work domain, you need
to take the computer back to your work where the domain is available, and
have someone who is a domain administrator re-join the computer [e.g. your
helpdesk or network administrator at work].

If the person that installed Windows [e.g. your helpdesk at work] doesn't
know, and you are never taking your computer back to your work domain to log
in, then there are password reset disks that can help. There are some
issues with using these on XP. See here:

http://securityadmin.info/faq.htm#password

I hope this helps.

 

[Janet in Atlanta]

I did exactly what you said, I changed it from a domain
to a workgroup thinking it would connect to my home
network that way (XP Desktop).

I have windows 2000 on my laptop. I don't know what the
local administrator password to my laptop is, I'm going
to have to go the password reset route because I don't
have access to that info.

Thanks for your help, and I will post when I get this
corrected.

BTW I am intrested in being able to log into both
compters to share files, printers, etc..that's what
started all this trouble! LOL I should have slept in!
<sigh>

Janet

-----Original Message-----
I'm wondering if maybe you changed your laptop from a domain to logging in
locally e.g. changed it from a domain to a workgroup. If you selected your
computer's name in the "domain" dropdown, then this is the case.

XP is not a domain or a domain controller. To have a domain at home, you
would need a windows 2000, 2003 or NT server set up as a domain controller.
Otherwise, you have to log in using local accounts on each computer and
manually set up and synchronize identical login IDs and passwords yourself
on other computers if you want to do file sharing between multiple computers
at home [and configure the computers to be in a workgroup instead of a
domain].

No matter what the problem is, I would think that knowing what the local
Administrator ID and password is and using them to log in locally should
help. When you're logging into a domain, these accounts are often never
used, so it could be that you may never have known or used these. Whoever
installed Windows on your laptop should know what the local admin ID and
password is. Often the account name is Administrator.

If you need to be able to rejoin the computer to your work domain, you need
to take the computer back to your work where the domain is available, and
have someone who is a domain administrator re-join the computer [e.g. your
helpdesk or network administrator at work].

If the person that installed Windows [e.g. your helpdesk at work] doesn't
know, and you are never taking your computer back to your work domain to log
in, then there are password reset disks that can help. There are some
issues with using these on XP. See here:

http://securityadmin.info/faq.htm#password

I hope this helps.

Please help what terrible thing I did!

Trying to connect my work laptop to my new home network
(XP) I Changed the domain on my laptop to my new home
network domain thinking I could switch between the two.
It told me it could not remove my old domain and asked me
to reboot. Now when I reboot, I can not get my domain
drop down box. When I try to log in using my old user
name and password it will not let me in. I tried a
thousand differnt things to get logged in including using
the old domain name\user id, new doman\ user id and
password, NOTHING WORKS! Help!

The sad part is now I realize I didn't have to do that at
all because my home desktop can see my laptop...I just
can't get into the laptop to change my settings back to
the original, I'm in huge trouble if I don't
get this fixed pronto!

Thanks in advance for your advice!

Janet <sigh>

.

 

[Guest]

Hello Janet,

could you fix the problem?

The same thing is happening to me on WIndows 2000. I
played with the settings (going from "Domain"
to "Workgroup") on my laptop and now I can no longer log-
on.

If you have solved the problem, I would be really
interested in knowing how.

Thanks a lot,
Bruno

 

[Marina Roos]

You will have to connect the machine to the network where it belongs and ask
the system administrator to rejoin it for you.

Marina

 

[Karl Levinson [x y] mvp]

You need to know a local administrator ID and password on the computer. If
you don't know it, call the person who installed Windows, or your helpdesk,
or use a password reset disk:

http://securityadmin.info/faq.asp#password

To rejoin the domain, you then have to be plugged into the domain and type
in a Domain administrator name and password.

 

[Karl Levinson [x y] mvp]

PS don't feel bad, I've even made this mistake myself. It's common.

I did exactly what you said, I changed it from a domain
to a workgroup thinking it would connect to my home
network that way (XP Desktop).

I have windows 2000 on my laptop. I don't know what the
local administrator password to my laptop is, I'm going
to have to go the password reset route because I don't
have access to that info.

Thanks for your help, and I will post when I get this
corrected.

BTW I am intrested in being able to log into both
compters to share files, printers, etc..that's what
started all this trouble! LOL I should have slept in!
<sigh>

Janet

-----Original Message-----
I'm wondering if maybe you changed your laptop from a domain to logging in
locally e.g. changed it from a domain to a workgroup. If you selected your
computer's name in the "domain" dropdown, then this is the case.

XP is not a domain or a domain controller. To have a domain at home, you
would need a windows 2000, 2003 or NT server set up as a domain controller.
Otherwise, you have to log in using local accounts on each computer and
manually set up and synchronize identical login IDs and passwords yourself
on other computers if you want to do file sharing between multiple computers
at home [and configure the computers to be in a workgroup instead of a
domain].

No matter what the problem is, I would think that knowing what the local
Administrator ID and password is and using them to log in locally should
help. When you're logging into a domain, these accounts are often never
used, so it could be that you may never have known or used these. Whoever
installed Windows on your laptop should know what the local admin ID and
password is. Often the account name is Administrator.

If you need to be able to rejoin the computer to your work domain, you need
to take the computer back to your work where the domain is available, and
have someone who is a domain administrator re-join the computer [e.g. your
helpdesk or network administrator at work].

If the person that installed Windows [e.g. your helpdesk at work] doesn't
know, and you are never taking your computer back to your work domain to log
in, then there are password reset disks that can help. There are some
issues with using these on XP. See here:

http://securityadmin.info/faq.htm#password

I hope this helps.

Please help what terrible thing I did!

Trying to connect my work laptop to my new home network
(XP) I Changed the domain on my laptop to my new home
network domain thinking I could switch between the two.
It told me it could not remove my old domain and asked me
to reboot. Now when I reboot, I can not get my domain
drop down box. When I try to log in using my old user
name and password it will not let me in. I tried a
thousand differnt things to get logged in including using
the old domain name\user id, new doman\ user id and
password, NOTHING WORKS! Help!

The sad part is now I realize I didn't have to do that at
all because my home desktop can see my laptop...I just
can't get into the laptop to change my settings back to
the original, I'm in huge trouble if I don't
get this fixed pronto!

Thanks in advance for your advice!

Janet <sigh>

.