Resetting from network computer to standalone

[Zora]

I built a new computer for my boss and when it came time to install WinXP, I
had to choose between network computer and standalone. I knew that all the
computers on the premises shared a net connection, so I figured the computers
were networked. Wrong!

(There was no one to ask. This was for a church; people volunteer time to do
things like set up computers, then disappear. No continuity.)

So now I have a standalone computer that pops up LDAP windows asking to be
connected to the main server and Active Directory Services. Which do not
exist.

The LDAP popups happen:

a) at startup; click cancel and the popup goes away
b) whenever we try to use the address book in Outlook.

Another employee thinks that she might be able to solve the Outlook problem,
by customizing Outlook. This would do a lot to mollify my angry boss.
However, it would be nice to be able to completely reconfigure the computer
as a standalone, and get rid of all the LDAP popups.

Is there a way to do this without wiping the computer and doing a complete
reinstall? It would seem that there should be, but I can't find any info
anywhere. Perhaps because no one else has ever made this stupid mistake

 

[Andrew E.]

Thats fairly simple,install xp cd,boot pc to xp cd,select install xp,new
copy,
delete the partition (xp),create one,then let xp format & install auto...

 

[Zora]

Thats fairly simple,install xp cd,boot pc to xp cd,select install xp,new

copy, delete the partition (xp),create one,then let xp format & install
auto...


But ... I spent days making his NEW computer exactly like his old. He's
old, and gets confused, and hates change. It would take a day to backup the
data, wipe the system, reinstall the OS, drivers, and software, and then
restore the data. My boss is 91, frail and peevish, and going without his
computer for a day would upset him greatly. He lives for his email and his
videocast from DemocracyNow.

Surely there's a way to do this without a complete re-install.

 

[John John (MVP)]

Make sure that you can logon to a local administrator account, press
Ctrl+Alt+Del twice at the logon screen and try to logon to Administrator
account. Once your are certain that you can logon to a local
administrator account you can then disjoin the machine from the domain,
remove it from the domain and make it part of a workgroup.

http://capd.ksu.edu/media/pdfs/cns/network-setup-instructions/disjoining-the-domain.pdf

John

 

[Zora]

Will that work even if the domain is nonexistent? That seems as if it would
solve the problem, but I won't know until I try it.

 

[John John (MVP)]

I think that it will, but I have not personally run into the problem
that you have before. I have never selected the Domain option when
installing on a standalone so I don't know what happens when you don't
follow through and join a domain proper after the installation. But my
first step in trying to resolve the problem would be to remove the
machine from any domain, real or imaginary, and make it part of a
workgroup, this should at least tell the machine to stop using the
NetLogon services.

John

 

[Anteaus]

Are you sure this problem is with Windows, or is it with Outlook having an
Exchange connector installed, and no Exchange server present? The messages
you get sound more like this.

Or is this a Small Business Server, and did you use the connector wizard? If
so, undoing this may not be so simple.