I recently took an old HP laptop from our recycling (retired) pile at work, and was going to re-purpose it. Within Windows I took it off the domain and just put it on a workgroup I created. I rebooted but now can't get logged into the laptop, as it doesn't seem to recognize my old (domain) user name and password. I could reload Windows, but is there a short cut?
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How do I get logged into a laptop that was removed from domain, and now is just in a workgroup?
- Thread starter hinesjrh
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If it isn't in the domain, it will not be able to log into your domain creds. If I was in your position I would use a tool off of the Ultimate Boot CD to "correct" the Admin account back to a blank pw. Since Ive been away from the site for a while, I'm not sure the policy on giving help backdooring Windows PWs, so that is all the farther I will go. If given the green light, I can link you to an article I have written on how to use that tool to do so.
Learning - A never ending quest for knowledge usually attained by being thrown in a situation and told to fix it NOW.
Learning - A never ending quest for knowledge usually attained by being thrown in a situation and told to fix it NOW.
goombawaho
MIS
That would be correct. The LOCAL admin user name and password have no relation to the domain user name/password. You have to reset the password by any means necessary or nuke it and reinstall.
"Living tomorrow is everyone's sorrow.
Modern man's daydreams have turned into nightmares.
Once off the Domain, there's no way for the computer to validate the credentais as the domain info is no longer there.
Rule one when removing a computer from a domain: make sure there is a local account you can access on it.
If there's a local account you can try to use that, but its going to be easier to just wipe it and reinstall if you don't have any local user credentials.
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Phil AKA Vacunita
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Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.
Web & Tech
Rule one when removing a computer from a domain: make sure there is a local account you can access on it.
If there's a local account you can try to use that, but its going to be easier to just wipe it and reinstall if you don't have any local user credentials.
----------------------------------
Phil AKA Vacunita
----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.
Web & Tech
goombawaho
MIS
Too late for that, but advisable if one were doing things "correctly".
"Living tomorrow is everyone's sorrow.
Modern man's daydreams have turned into nightmares.
Like DrB0b mentioned, there are free utilities you can download that will blank the local Administrator password. So, no need to wipe and reimage if you really need to log into it.
Microsoft's tool for Windows XP is called ERD Commander. You'll need version 5.0 which supports 2000, XP, and Windows Server 2003. It allows you to boot into a WinPE environment with access to a wide range of tools including Locksmith, which you can set the local Administrator password with.
Note: ERD Commander was eventually replaced by Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset (DaRT) starting with version 7.0, but those only support Vista and above.
-Carl
"The glass is neither half-full nor half-empty: it's twice as big as it needs to be."
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Microsoft's tool for Windows XP is called ERD Commander. You'll need version 5.0 which supports 2000, XP, and Windows Server 2003. It allows you to boot into a WinPE environment with access to a wide range of tools including Locksmith, which you can set the local Administrator password with.
Note: ERD Commander was eventually replaced by Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset (DaRT) starting with version 7.0, but those only support Vista and above.
-Carl
"The glass is neither half-full nor half-empty: it's twice as big as it needs to be."
[tab][navy]For this site's posting policies, click [/navy]here.
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