Moving a XP-Pro off a NT4 Domain Problem.

[Melvin Edward]

I need some help on this one, in the office there is a NT4 server that five
XP-Pro workstations are logged into the domain. It's time to retire NT4 and
we are replacing it with a XP-Pro peer to peer system as the application we
run is a dos based and the software company recommended that the peer to
peer will do just fine and it would be less expensive.



I got started setting up on one of the workstations, logged of the domain
(user office) and logged on locally (user office) and found out that the
account doesn't exist on the XP-Pro workstation. I logged in to the XP-Pro
workstation as the admin and found that there was a user folder under
Documents and Setting called office, exploring the folder I found the
desktop and all their applications are there and I need to retain this
profile.



Logged on as admin I thought of creating a user office on the workstation
but I didn't know if it would remove the office profile and create a new
default profile. Or maybe I could move the office desktop to all users.
There is only on user on the workstation.



Has anyone got some suggestion as I can't lose this user's desktop?



Melvin Edward

 

[Shenan Stanley]

I need some help on this one, in the office there is a NT4 server
that five XP-Pro workstations are logged into the domain. It's
time to retire NT4 and we are replacing it with a XP-Pro peer to
peer system as the application we run is a dos based and the
software company recommended that the peer to peer will do just
fine and it would be less expensive.
I got started setting up on one of the workstations, logged of the
domain (user office) and logged on locally (user office) and found
out that the account doesn't exist on the XP-Pro workstation. I
logged in to the XP-Pro workstation as the admin and found that
there was a user folder under Documents and Setting called office,
exploring the folder I found the desktop and all their applications
are there and I need to retain this profile.

Logged on as admin I thought of creating a user office on the
workstation but I didn't know if it would remove the office profile
and create a new default profile. Or maybe I could move the office
desktop to all users. There is only on user on the workstation.

Has anyone got some suggestion as I can't lose this user's desktop?

Before removing the machine from the domain - export each of the locally
stored (unless you had roaming profiles) using the Files and Settings
Transfer Wizard or User State Migrations Tool and then after removing it
from the domain - create the local accounts (or join the new domain) and log
in as each user and then import each of the users.

You could also create the local accounts while still joined to the domain,
log in as the local account, log out, log in as a local administrator and
change the registry settings so the local account points to the domain
account profile directory - ensuring the local account has full permissions
to the entire directory structure of the domain account.

 

[John John - MVP]

If you "can't lose this user's desktop" make sure that you have a
complete known working backup before you proceed. If things go
completely awry you may want to return the workstation to its previous
state.

If you set up the users to use Roaming Profiles (on the NT4 PDC) you can
then easily convert them to local profile on the workstations. When you
are sure that things are ok you can then disjoin the machine from the
domain (change it to be member of a workgroup).

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/312138
HOW TO: Switch Between a Local and Roaming User Profile on a Mobile
Windows XP-Based Computer

http://www.techadvice.com/nt40/R/RoamingProfiles.htm
RoamingProfiles

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/295017
How to change a computer name, join a domain, and add a computer
description in Windows XP or in Windows Server 2003

John