LAN & XP Home

[sarah]

Hi,

I just purchased a Compaq NX9005 Laptop with Win XP Home Pro as the OS. I am trying to get it to see my home network which is called "Domain", I have a win2k server and 3 other win2k clients that all see each other.

So far I have achieved:

1) Set up an IP address, subnet mask, default gateway.

Now usually at this point in Win2k pro, I would click "Network Identification" in "My Computer | properties" and select the member of domain "my domain name", enter a username / password for an account on the domain etc.

But XP doesn't have this option or if is has... i cant find it!!!

Anyways, I managed to view the server and other client machines via "My Network Places" from the laptop.

My first problem...
On the server I can't seem to see my laptop in Network Places, or in the "Domain". If I do a search for "Laptop1" I find it, but it is in location "Unknown" - Bizzare!

My second problem...
I use a logon.bat script that creates network shares, etc. Usually when I logon to the Domain in Win2K I select the domain at logon, but in XP there is no domain option, so I can't logon to the Domain, the script isn't run and none of the network shares are created.

Does anyone here use XP to log onto a network that uses batch scripts to create network shares, etc. If so, please help!!!

Regards

A sad and stressed Sarah

[Celtboy]

Ok Sarah, you've given some good information, but we need to dig a bit deeper.

Compaq NX9005 Laptop with Win XP Home Pro as the OS.

which is it? XP home or XP Pro?
XP Home does not have domain support - IE You cannot join it to a domain. (unless you use a hack, like the one here)

If it's XP Pro, I'm curious- Do you have a WORKGROUP called "domain" or a DOMAIN called "domain" ?? The two are very different, as DOMAIN implies Active Directory. The fact that you mentioned both the server and being prompted for credentials to join a machine make me think you have a DOMAIN called "domain", but I can't be sure.

Instructions for joining a Windows XP Pro Box to a Microsoft Active Directory Domain:

1. Right-click "My Computer" on the desktop (Or hold the "WINDOWS" key on the keyboard, and hit the "PAUSE" key)
2. Click on the "Computer Name" tab
3. Click the "Change..." button
4. Enter the computer name.
5. In the "Member of" section, Click the radio button next to Domain:
6. Enter the domain name in the box
7. Hit ok. You may be prompted to enter valid credentials of an account with priveleges to add the machine to the domain
8. Click "ok"
9. Click "apply", then "ok"
10. Restart your machine.


Those are my own instructions, and may or may not be entirely accurate, but mostly on target, I believe.

HTH,

And don't worry, we'll make you Super and Spiffy sarah soon!
-Celt

[sarah]

Hi Celt,

Thankyou very much for the detailed and well-explained response. My apologies for confusing the two OS's. I can confirm that the OS is XP Home.

I have downloaded the "hack" and will give it a try. Is there anything I need to look out for when installing the hack?

Any tips / advise on installation and use of the "Hack"?

Thanx
A more hopeful Sarah

[Celtboy]

If you follow the X-teq instructions, you should be ok. They are fairly simple.

The best advice I can give you is to make sure you use a username already in the domain, and you will probably have to use a FQDN (ie. "my.domain.com" not "domain"), though this may not really apply.

I also dug up the following:

As Serdar Yegulalp pointed out in his Win2kPowerUsers newsletter today also, this can be accomplished using Microsoft's TweakUI for Windows XP, but that has been pulled from Microsoft's website for the time being. I feel that it is very possible, if not highly probable, that Microsoft will prevent this workaround from being used with future versions of TweakUI with Windows XP Home Edition, as they authored both Windows XP and TweakUI, and they don't want Windows XP Home Edition users to be able to join network domains. A copy of TweakUI for WinXP can be obtained at http://www.majorgeeks.com.

http://www.ntcompatible.com/story8718.html

I've not tested that method.

The caveat should be mentioned that this does not actually JOIN the domain, rather, it only gives access to domain resources. Therein lies one of the fundamental differences between the Home and Pro versions.

I did, at one time, know of a full way to "patch" XP Home using Pro files....but I cannot seem to find that resource. If it turns up, I'll let you know.

-Celt

[Ultragames]

You dont need hacks. Anything that is available in XP Pro, is available in XP Home if you know how to use the registry.

[Celtboy]

Originally posted by Ultragames
You dont need hacks. Anything that is available in XP Pro, is available in XP Home if you know how to use the registry.

Oh??? Do share then, oh wise one

[Redg]

This will let you join a computer to a Domain.
You may not be able to get anymore security updates after making this change.

I have lost track of where I found this information via google.com

o convert and upgrade Windows XP Home to Windows XP Professional, follow procedure below.


1.Open Registry Editor (regedit).
2.Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/ControlSet00X/Control/ProductOptions, where ControlSet00X is the one with the highest number.

3.Delete the ProductSuite registry key.

4.Then, create a new DWORD value and named it as Brand.
5.Set the “Brand” value data as 0.

6.Reboot the system.

7.On boot up after the BIOS screen, press F8 to display Windows
XP Startup Menu.
8.Choose Last Known Good Configuration (LNG) and hit Enter.

Windows XP will start up as usual.
After logging into the desktop, check the system properties to verify that it’s now Windows XP Professional.