Re: Joined workgroup, now login doesn't work

ruger3717 wrote:

That's exactly what happened. I completely understand why I can't use
my
work domain login. What I don't understand is if I changed the
laptop's domain from the work domain to my home workgroup, why can't I
log in at all? Seems to me I should be able to log in to the home
workgroup, which I did not
set up username and passwords for. So it should let me on.

(snip)

No, that's not the way it works. In a multi-user operating system like
XP you have user accounts. At the minimum, you have the built-in
Administrator account which is a *local* (non-domain) account. After
your computer is joined to a domain, you now have two types of user
accounts - the local account(s) and the domain account.

Your home computers *do* have user accounts - you just don't realize it
because you probably bought OEM machines (HP, Dell, etc.) and they log
in directly to the Desktop. If you didn't make additional user
accounts, those computers have two user accounts - the one you are
using which is probably called something like "Owner" and is the
generic user account created by the OEM because they don't know who is
going to buy the machine - and the built-in Administrator account,
which is normally hidden.

Most businesses do not set up local user accounts, leaving only the
local Administrator and password-protecting it. So when you disjoined
the computer from the domain, your domain user account was no longer
available to you. That account is authenticated by the workplace server
when you log in. That left the local Administrator account. If you know
the local Administrator password, you can log in locally. Most
businesses would not tell end users the local Administrator account
password. There are ways of changing the local Administrator password
to a blank so you can get in, but I don't suggest doing this since it
will only annoy your IT Dept. even more.

Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User
.

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