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My home computer is currently in my home's workgroup, and I don't have any domain controller in my home network. I would like to have my computer's hostname look like mycomputer.mydomain.com, but Windows 7 doesn't allow dot in the computer name, and since I don't have a domain controller, so I can't choose that this computer is in a domain. Is there any way to have my computer name look like a full qualified name?

Thanks.

Update: the reason I try to modify my computer name is I need to try a software that the license requires the running computer is in a particular domain. Because my home computer is just in a workgroup, the FQDN doesn't contain the domain name. I figured that if I could find a way to modify the computer name to contain the domain name, I can bypass the license check. It seems to me the only option is to set up a domain controller with the need domain name, and have the computer join the domain.

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As joeqwerty said, what are you trying to achieve? There are several different ways to do what you're asking. – Nic Aug 25 '11 at 4:09
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closed as off topic by MDMarra, Jason Berg, Zoredache, womble, John Gardeniers Aug 25 '11 at 4:34

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2 Answers

up vote 1 down vote

You can set the primary DNS suffix by editing the registry at:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\Tcpip\Parameters

and setting the Domain string value to the primary DNS suffix you want the computer to have.

Honestly though, I don't know what good this is going to do you. What are you trying to achieve?

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up vote 0 down vote

Why do you want this?

Windows doesn't allow to have dots in the computer name. No matter if you are in a domain or on a workgroup.

The thing is that where you are in a domain your computer full name is something like: computername.yourdomain.com. Your full, but the computer name continus being computername. This longer name is known as FQDN (Full qualified domain name) or absolute name and is use to specified the computer location in the tree hierarchy of the Domain Name System (DNS).

When you are in a workgroup unlike domains DNS does not work for internal resolution, thats why you don't see a FQDN. But have in mind that a PC never has dots in his name.

Regards.

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You certainly can run DNS in a workgroup for internal DNS name resolution. – joeqwerty Aug 25 '11 at 4:02
Yes @joeqwerty you are right, it's possible. Remember that by default the names used in a workgroup eviroment are NetBios names because there are not a DNS Suffix, and they are resolve using NetBios broadcast, the Master Browser service, or a WINS server. – Ricardo Polo Aug 25 '11 at 4:11
There are a number of ways to assign a DNS suffix to a computer in workgroup mode and also to configure a DNS suffix search list. You can assign a connection specific DNS suffix and a DNS suffix search list in the properties of the NIC or you can configure them via DHCP. If you're running a windows DNS server you simply need to set your DNS zone to allow non-secure updates and your non-domain joined computers will happily use the DNS suffix you've configured and register their A records in the DNS zone, which is maybe what the OP is after in the end. – joeqwerty Aug 25 '11 at 4:15
Yes you are totally right @joeqwerty. Fully possible. Regards. – Ricardo Polo Aug 25 '11 at 4:20
Glad to pipe in my 2 cents. :) – joeqwerty Aug 25 '11 at 4:21
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