Connecting to domain

[Ch@n]

Hi all,

We have got a laptop with Windows 7 home premium pre-installed. My office has windows 2003 server acting as a domain controller.

When we open the dialog which specifies workgroup and domain, it displays the foll message,

[COLOR=black][FONT=&quot]you can change the name and workgroup membership of this computer. you can not join the computer running windows 7 Home premium to a domain[/FONT][/COLOR]

I came to know that home premium version cannot be connected to a domain. And a googling made me aware of a registry hack which enables it. Tried it, but still no go.

Any other possibilities?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

 

[mckillwashere]

nope sorry mate. Its part of the os that is not included with Home Premium.

 

[Ch@n]

OMG!!!

 

[mckillwashere]

Chill.

 

[DeaconFrost]

Since this is a business, why was it purchased with Home Premium, and not Pro? Sound like the person in charge of purchasing doesn't know what they are doing. Anyway, do the anytime upgrade to Professional, or, if your company already owns licenses, you can upgrade on the fly.

 

[chev65]

Hi all,

We have got a laptop with Windows 7 home premium pre-installed. My office has windows 2003 server acting as a domain controller.

When we open the dialog which specifies workgroup and domain, it displays the foll message,

[COLOR=black][FONT=&quot]you can change the name and workgroup membership of this computer. you can not join the computer running windows 7 Home premium to a domain[/FONT][/COLOR]

I came to know that home premium version cannot be connected to a domain. And a googling made me aware of a registry hack which enables it. Tried it, but still no go.

Any other possibilities?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

This didn't work?

Problem solved by adding a line to registry.
If you's using Windows Server 2003 or below:

1. Access HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa
2. Create a new DWORD entry called LmCompatibilityLevel
3. Modify the entry and set the value to 1
4. Reboot

We're able to connect to our server in the office using Windows 7 Home Basic and Home Premium.

 

[Ch@n]

^^ the above registry trick didnt work. I believe, it should be done on the server. The DWORD was not there and I created.

@DF
It was the OEM version. But we have license for Vista business. Any chance of a upgrade now?

 

[2xg]

Hi Ch@n,

If it's possible for you to upgrade to XP Pro, it will be much better. We had 2 Vista Business Machines at work that cause so much trouble and good thing that I can downgrade it to XP Pro, all is well now. Just a thought.

 

[chev65]

^^ the above registry trick didnt work. I believe, it should be done on the server. The DWORD was not there and I created.

@DF
It was the OEM version. But we have license for Vista business. Any chance of a upgrade now?

I believe the registry adjustment is done on the Win7 machine and it only allows access to shares on the domain but you can't actually join the domain.

 

[brady]

Why is joining the domain that big of deal? You can still access all of it's resources through the "connect as" prompts? file sharing / printers... etc.

 

[wilywombat]

Thats the mechanism by which M$ screw you to pay for facilities that come free with other OS!!

 

[Ch@n]

Thanks for all feedback. Connecting to domain is a must, due to gpo's enforced by me. The laptops users wont be accessing shared files or folders.

 

[mckillwashere]

Thats the mechanism by which M$ screw you to pay for facilities that come free with other OS!!

They come free with other os's because other os's do not join to active directory. they join through LDAP which is an open source protocol. With open source servers.

 

[wilywombat]

Yeah...the words "open source" seem to have a nicer ring to them versus "come into my cloud, said the M$ spider to the unsuspecting fly"

 

[mckillwashere]

I am not a fan of the cloud. But everything heading tot he cloud opens several hundred jobs in security.
Also Will spawn more hackers,
Which in turn cause more jobs to be created,
Its a large cycle.

 

[DeaconFrost]

@DF
It was the OEM version. But we have license for Vista business. Any chance of a upgrade now?

Which means someone didn't read the details before purchasing the laptops. I've used Vista Business for a while and it ran fine, just make sure it is updated. If you want to standardize, look into two anytime upgrades to Pro.

 

[Ch@n]

Thanks pal. Will keep in mind.

 

[mckillwashere]

My old laptop had Vista Business. Personally I never had any issues with it. Yes it was vista but i never thought it was that bad.