Windows XP accounts

UmneyDurak

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Aug 8, 2004
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Hi.
My friend has a laptop that he was given at work, with Windows XP Pro installed.
He tried to connect it to his home network thats uses workgroups instead of domain.
So he changed his network settings on the laptop from domain to workgroup.
Now he can't log in, in to it. It keeps saying that he needs to make sure that user name and domain are correct. How can he restore his settings back to his laptop using domain?
Thx.
 

dclive

Elite Member
Oct 23, 2003
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Originally posted by: UmneyDurak
Hi.
My friend has a laptop that he was given at work, with Windows XP Pro installed.
He tried to connect it to his home network thats uses workgroups instead of domain.
So he changed his network settings on the laptop from domain to workgroup.
Now he can't log in, in to it. It keeps saying that he needs to make sure that user name and domain are correct. How can he restore his settings back to his laptop using domain?
Thx.

He needs to rejoin the domain. To do that he'll need a local account that he'll be able to log in with ... a bit of a catch 22. How did he get the rights to remove his computer from the domain, anyway?

In plain English: He needs the local machine's administrative password. Does he know that?
 

dclive

Elite Member
Oct 23, 2003
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Originally posted by: UmneyDurak
Don't know I'll ask.
I think his account had admin privilidges.

His old domain account might have, but he needs to log into an account on the local machine, not the domain, because at this point the machine doesn't know a thing about the domain.
 

imported_Phil

Diamond Member
Feb 10, 2001
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dclive is correct. However, if you go and download this nifty tool, then you can set the Administrator password to whatever you want, and then log onto the local machine. Once there, create a new account for him to use, and bob's you're uncle, fred's your aunt, etc.
 

stash

Diamond Member
Jun 22, 2000
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The office IT department probably wouldn't be too amused about you cracking the admin password and then resetting it.
 

imported_Phil

Diamond Member
Feb 10, 2001
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Originally posted by: STaSh
The office IT department probably wouldn't be too amused about you cracking the admin password and then resetting it.

Depends if they care or not :D
 

UmneyDurak

Member
Aug 8, 2004
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They might... :)
Any way he contacted the IT guys and gave told him the admin password so he could change it back to domain. I think they told him that pass is changed every 24 hours, also he had to be connected to the network for it to work. Not sure if it's true or not. He doesn't really care, his laptop is working again. :)
Thx for replies.
 

stash

Diamond Member
Jun 22, 2000
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It would be extremely difficult, if not impossible for them to change the local admin passwords every 24 hours. Especially on laptops that might not be on the office network for long periods of time.
 

dclive

Elite Member
Oct 23, 2003
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Originally posted by: STaSh
It would be extremely difficult, if not impossible for them to change the local admin passwords every 24 hours. Especially on laptops that might not be on the office network for long periods of time.

Actually this is pretty common in the corporate world. The LAN admins then have a spreadsheet they can search and get the latest or last password that the local admin password was set to ... so even if it was off the network for a week, they'll still be able to log in with that (week old) password.
 

stash

Diamond Member
Jun 22, 2000
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The LAN admins then have a spreadsheet they can search and get the latest or last password that the local admin password was set to ... so even if it was off the network for a week, they'll still be able to log in with that (week old) password.

You and I must have different ideas of what the corporate world is. None of the corporate customers that I have worked with have a spreadsheet of 50,000 local administrator passwords. This might work for a handful of computers, but it would get out of hand pretty quickly.

Most corporate IT departments set the local admin password in an image. If they need to change it down the road, they can write a script and push it out to all of the machines.

Besides...what you describe above is not an example of changing the local admin password every 24 hours.
 

dclive

Elite Member
Oct 23, 2003
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Originally posted by: STaSh
The LAN admins then have a spreadsheet they can search and get the latest or last password that the local admin password was set to ... so even if it was off the network for a week, they'll still be able to log in with that (week old) password.

You and I must have different ideas of what the corporate world is. None of the corporate customers that I have worked with have a spreadsheet of 50,000 local administrator passwords. This might work for a handful of computers, but it would get out of hand pretty quickly.

Most corporate IT departments set the local admin password in an image. If they need to change it down the road, they can write a script and push it out to all of the machines.

Besides...what you describe above is not an example of changing the local admin password every 24 hours.

It's automatic. There's no manual labor involved - it's all handled by SMS and a few scripts. It's easier than I'm making it sound. There is no 'getting out of hand' because there is no manual work....it's scripted to change every 24 hours, and tie into a spreadsheet / database to hold the results.
 

imported_Phil

Diamond Member
Feb 10, 2001
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Originally posted by: dclive
Originally posted by: STaSh
The LAN admins then have a spreadsheet they can search and get the latest or last password that the local admin password was set to ... so even if it was off the network for a week, they'll still be able to log in with that (week old) password.

You and I must have different ideas of what the corporate world is. None of the corporate customers that I have worked with have a spreadsheet of 50,000 local administrator passwords. This might work for a handful of computers, but it would get out of hand pretty quickly.

Most corporate IT departments set the local admin password in an image. If they need to change it down the road, they can write a script and push it out to all of the machines.

Besides...what you describe above is not an example of changing the local admin password every 24 hours.

It's automatic. There's no manual labor involved - it's all handled by SMS and a few scripts. It's easier than I'm making it sound. There is no 'getting out of hand' because there is no manual work....it's scripted to change every 24 hours, and tie into a spreadsheet / database to hold the results.

Could you elaborate? I'm interested as to how this works, as I've just finished a large networking installation for the company at a school, alongside several other technicians (they actually set the software up, I was doing the monkey work).
 

dclive

Elite Member
Oct 23, 2003
5,626
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Originally posted by: DopeFiend
Originally posted by: dclive
Originally posted by: STaSh
The LAN admins then have a spreadsheet they can search and get the latest or last password that the local admin password was set to ... so even if it was off the network for a week, they'll still be able to log in with that (week old) password.

You and I must have different ideas of what the corporate world is. None of the corporate customers that I have worked with have a spreadsheet of 50,000 local administrator passwords. This might work for a handful of computers, but it would get out of hand pretty quickly.

Most corporate IT departments set the local admin password in an image. If they need to change it down the road, they can write a script and push it out to all of the machines.

Besides...what you describe above is not an example of changing the local admin password every 24 hours.

It's automatic. There's no manual labor involved - it's all handled by SMS and a few scripts. It's easier than I'm making it sound. There is no 'getting out of hand' because there is no manual work....it's scripted to change every 24 hours, and tie into a spreadsheet / database to hold the results.

Could you elaborate? I'm interested as to how this works, as I've just finished a large networking installation for the company at a school, alongside several other technicians (they actually set the software up, I was doing the monkey work).

There's an SMS server. There are automatic SMS jobs scripted to run at given intervals - for example, every day. Those jobs create a randomized password for computers in the SMS machine's scope. The job also updates that SMS server with all passwords for all machines in its scope. When complete, the SMS machine uploads this data to a central repository, and from there administrators run queries when they need local admin account passwords.

The benefit is centralized security (having your local desktop techs know all your admin passwords on all your local machines is a major security breach) and ease-of-administration, since all of this is completely automatic.