Vista Home Premium and Domains

[Guest]

I just bought a laptop that came with Vista Home Premium. I want to join a
domain at the office that is running Windows Server 2003 with Exchange
Server. Is this possible? What do I need to do to make this happen?
Thank you

 

[koze]

No, for domain access you need Vista Business or Ultimate.
Ko.

 

[Robert Moir]

I just bought a laptop that came with Vista Home Premium. I want to join a
domain at the office that is running Windows Server 2003 with Exchange
Server. Is this possible? What do I need to do to make this happen?
Thank you

As Koze says, you'll need Vista Business or Vista Ultimate to join a domain.
Vista Enterprise will also do it, but likely if you're buying your own
computers for work they won't have access to that particular product so we
won't worry about it.

However, I notice you talk about Exchange. Is reading your email all that
you want to do with your domain connection? You can configure outlook to
connect to the exchange server and supply your domain credentials (that is,
including domain name) if this is all you need to do. Step through a manual
configuration of outlook to connect to exchange, and fill in the appropriate
information when asked.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the info. We are going to a full-fledged domain for security. The
exchange server is for mail and calendar sharing, but the domain is to secure
our network and set permissions, etc.
Can I upgrade to Business or am I going to need premium?

 

[koze]

No you can reinstall Business but not upgrade from Home premium to Business
that's not supported, you are able to upgrade to Ultimate though, in that
case all the options from Home Premium (Mediacenter etc..) will still be
available.

Ko.

 

[Michael A. Bishop \(MSFT\)]

In order to join a domain, you'll need to be running Vista Business,
Enterprise, or Ultimate. Unless your employer has a contract to get one of
these more cheaply, your best option would be to do an Anytime Upgrade:
Click Start, Control Panel, System and Maintenance, Windows Anytime Upgrade.
This will take you through the process of purchasing an upgrade from Home
Premium to Ultimate.

The Vista DVD contains all the various editions. The Anytime Upgrade key
you receive will let you do the Home Premium - Ultimate upgrade with your
existing Home Premium disk. If you didn't get a Vista or Anytime Upgrade
DVD with your laptop, I believe the website also has information on getting
an AU DVD.