Unjoin from Windows Domain 1

[shaferbus]

Before I do this, I'm hoping to find out if there are any caveats I should be aware of when un-joining a Windows 7 machine from our SBS 2000 domain.

This machine is the personal home computer of one of our company officers, which I am setting up for VPN access to domain resources. After setting up the VPN and joining the domain, we discovered that some apps wouldn't run on Win 7. Since I'm going to have to use XP Mode Virtual Machine anyway, it makes sense (to me, at least) to join the VM to the domain and un-join the Win 7 machine, so all of the business apps will run on a (virtually) separate machine.

My main worry is that I don't want to mess up the personal local user profile for the boss!

Has anyone done this? Will the local (Homegroup I guess) accounts be unchanged and accessible as before the join?

TIA for any opinions!

 

[BadBigBen]

I've had no problem unjoining my test machine from a test domain, I had set up at home...

nor in rejoining and unjoining again, several months later...


Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[shaferbus]

Thanks for the reply Ben! Have a star!

This was my first foray into using Win 7 on a domain, and I can't even remember the last time I demoted an XP domain member to Workgroup, so I wasn't sure what would happen to the local profile. I'd be red-faced and VERY unpopular if I lost the boss's personal stuff LOL.

Actually, I think using the VM for a VPN user is a much more elegant solution in this (fairly common) teleworker situation. Seems more secure to me, and a lot easier for the user. (No more log-off, log-in, log-off, log-in just to send an internal email).

 

[linney]

Any profile copying might have to be done while still joined to the Domain?

Switch from Domain to Workgroup

http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/questions/101-265972

How to convert your Domain Profile to a Local Profile.

http://www.shofkom.com/2009/03/14/how-to-convert-your-domain-profile-to-a-local-profile/

http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=copy+domain+profile+to+local&gfns=1&client=ie9-lb

 

[shaferbus]

Hi linney, thanks for the response.

I think maybe you've got the wrong idea, or I'm not understanding... so I'll go into a bit more detail.

When we started out, the boss had a Win 7 Premium machine for home use, set up with all of her personal settings, email accounts, and personal-use applications (AND her husbands research data!!!).

Then we decided to set her up with a VPN connection so she could work from home. (I had done this before with other company officers, but those were XP Pro). I upgraded her OS to Win 7 Pro and joined the machine to the domain.
Now, when she wants to work from home, she has to log off the personal (local) profile, select "Other User", enter domain\username and password to log in, and then when she's done log off, select "Other User", enter localmachinename\username and password, and log into the local profile.

I wasn't too happy with the rather obtuse method Win 7 uses to switch domains. XP, with the Domain dropdown box at login, was much more straightforward, but that's not an option in Win 7. It creates a minor hassle for any other users on that machine, because if she just logs off the domain account, when another local user (read family member) wants to use the machine they have to remember how to get back to the local profile...

Anyway, for reasons explained above, I've decided it would be simpler to only have the XP Virtual Machine joined to the domain, and she can do all of her work in the Guest OS window within her same old local profile....

So, that "same old local proflie" is what I'm interested in preserving! The domain user profile can go away as far as Win 7 is concerned, since it will ultimately be created again in the XP Mode OS.

I wouldn't THINK that domain membership would affect a local profile, but I just wanted to hear some voices of experience verify that before I go ahead

 

[BadBigBen]

when I had the test environment running, I had joined the LOCAL account to the DOMAIN, what I had done was create the exact loginname and password under the DOMAIN users...

unjoining did not create any problems for that profile... nor did login in when the Domain Server was down (it just used the local profile instead of the Domain Profile)...

Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[shaferbus]

Oh yes, I wouldn't be surprised if the cached domain profile was left intact - Hey, does the un-join operation ask you if you want to keep it or not???

Either way, as long as it leaves the original local profile alone, I'll be happy (or at least employed LOL)

 

[BadBigBen]

No it does not ask to remove the Domain Profile...

if you want to, why not create an image of the drive before you unjoin it...

that way you would have a backup in case things do go wrong...

Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[shaferbus]

Excellent suggestion... I wonder if I can do that over the vpn connection - never tried it. (I have Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery for images, which runs on a server and images clients using an agent).

Would I accomplish the same thing just doing a backup of the Users folder?

Of course, I can always leave Win 7 joined as well as the XP Virtual machine, but I need to conserve CAL's.