Is there a way to change a Windows machine's name once it's been joined to an AD Domain?

[Booty]

I know I can manually sit down at the machine, remove it from the domain, change the name, and re-add it, but I'm looking for a simpler way to just do it through the AD Users & Computers snap-in (or some other way of doing it from the server).

The computers around here are not named in a logical manner what-so-ever - I'd like to change that.

Thx.

 

[HKSturboKID]

AFAIK, there is no other way then the way you had mention. I know its a hassle especially with all the reboots and stuff, hey its a dirty job but some have to do it.

 

[Monoman]

XP or 2k? I think I ran across an article on how to do it from winXP but let me go fetch it

 

[Haden]

netdom
utility might be usefull.

 

[Booty]

That is exactly what I'm looking for... we have a mix of 2K/XP machines, so that'll help with about half of them. If anyone comes across a way to do it in 2000 that'd be really great, but this definitely is a good start.

 

[redbeard1]

I just change the computer name by logging onto the system as administrator, using the network administrator account and password. Then when it asks for user a name and password for someone who has domain rights, I use the same account.