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I have the following problem.

The laptop with WinXP was configured to login to company domain. I brought it home and wanted to connect to home network, which is a workgroup. So from "My Computer" properties I changed it to be member of the workgroup. And now I'm unable to login at all, probably because I don't have a local account. But I don't have the administrator password to change it back.

What can I do?

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3 Answers

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If you have removed it from the domian then the only accounts left on the machine will be local ones. If you do not know the password for any of the local accounts, then your only options are to either use a password reset cd as suggested, or to own up to your systems administrator and get them to rejoin it to your domain.

For future reference you do not need to disjoin your machine from the domain to use it at home, just login with your domain acocunt and use cached credentails, you should still be able to connect to your home network. If you really want to keep work and home seperate then create a local account on the machine for home use, if you are allowed.

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There are no local user accounts. – grigy Oct 1 '09 at 9:56
There will be local user accounts, even if it is just the local administrator account – Sam♦ Oct 1 '09 at 10:08
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You could remove the Administrator password with a custom linux boot CD. (Not sure what your work Administrator would say about that though...)

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OK, but how remove the admin passowrd? – grigy Oct 1 '09 at 9:58
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As suggested, use the linux boot CD to do so. boot to the CD and use the utility to reset the password. Thi sutility -home.eunet.no/pnordahl/ntpasswd is a good one, comes with full instructions. I would suggest however that you take it to your IT department, as i'm guesisng you want to put it back on the domain, and your not going to be able to do this with out a domain admin password, which your not going to be able to get, this will only let you reset the local admin account – Sam♦ Oct 1 '09 at 11:47
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up vote 1 down vote

Take it back to work and have your system administrator re-join it to the domain. Next time you take it home just plug it in to your home network and login with your domain credentials (which will be cached on the laptop). You'll have access to the physical network and internet connection. Accessing other computers on your home network is another story, if you simply need access to files and folders or a printer you can access them via UNC path and provide the appropriate credentials when prompted.

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