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Help, only able to login to a workgroup


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Hi folks

Hope you can help me here. We have recently bought 5 new PCs for work, with Windows XP MCE 2005 pre installed. My problem is these 5 PCs are only able to login to a workgroup and I need them to be able to login to a Domain.

In System Properties - Computer Name the Network ID button is greyed out and when I press the Change button, the Domain option is also greyed out.

I have tried the HP recovery option, in the hope that it would allow me to setup the network again, however it did not.

Does anybody know how I can activate the Domain option again without doing a complete re-install?

Thanks in advance for any help with this problem.

Edited by Joides
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I believe Windows MCE does not support Domains. I think you'd have to buy windows XP Professional for that...

Thanks for the info, but why then is the Domain option greyed out. In the XP Home edition, the option is not there.

I have installed XP Pro before and had this same problem I seem to recall and was only able to get the Domain re-activated by re-installing XP Pro (complete re-install) networks correctly (could be wrong here).

Once again, thanks, will look into this and see if Domains are supported in MCE.

OK, thanks "kasandoro", just found this comment on the net and your right.

Nick [MSFT] (Expert):

Q: Can I connect a PC running Windows MCE 2005 to a work network or domain?

A: Computers running Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 can be members of Workgroups, but cannot be joined to Domains.

Looks like the company needs to go and buy 5 copies of XP Pro :thumbup

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Thanks for the info, but why then is the Domain option greyed out. In the XP Home edition, the option is not there.

In order for MCE to support a Media Center Extender it requires Romote Desktop so it is based on XP Pro and not XP Home. It is possible to join a domain during installation before the MCE components are installed.

Computers running Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 can be members of Workgroups, but cannot be joined to Domains.

Notice the choice of words used. MCE can be a member of a domain, you just can't join a domain.

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  • 2 weeks later...
It's possible!

Haven't tried myself as have no need but if you like a bit of hacking here you go! :)

http://extended64.com/blogs/rafael/archive.../05/01/404.aspx

But as already said you won't be able to use an Extender.

:hello:

I have tried the registry fix and it comes up with access denied....Any other suggestions? I am running XP MCE 2002 sp2 and have run the recovery cd with XP MCE 2005 to restore the network during startup....It does not ask for the second CD, and it offers to join the domain only to find out that after the installation the domain has coverted to workgroup.....HELP! I am pulling my hair out over this issue. There are 2 eMachine T6420 media center pcs with AMD Athlon 64 3400+ Processor with AMD 64 technology,NVIDIA nForce410 chipset with NVIDIA GeForce 6100 GPU Video, 10/100 Ethernet LAN (RJ-45 port), that are frusterating to set up for network use. I do not plan to use the extender or the fast user switching at all. :wacko: Any tips or suggestions greatly appreciated. B)

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I have "connected" PC's running XP Home edition to a domain before by using the cached username and password as a passthrough to the domain. What I mean is that you setup your username and passwords the same on the MCE PC as you have on the domain and you will get access to domain resources.

For example, if user Fred has a password of 1234 on his MCE PC and his domain username and password is Fred and password 1234 he can map drives and connect to shares his account has access to on the domain. The big down side to this is that if you have passwords expire they will have to be changed on both the server and the MCE PC. It's a juggling act at best. But if you can't spend the money on XP Pro this will buy you some time. It works well for file and print shares. Some apps that are server based will not work this way. The best thing to do is go buy Pro and wipe out the MCE.

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  • 1 year later...

I know this is a really old thread, but I've been trying to solve this workgroup problem for a while on my Windows MCE 2005 HP laptop, and I finally found a solution tonight. Here's the note I wrote up for myself; I thought I'd share it with everyone else:

HOW TO ADD WINDOWS MCE 200X TO A WORKGROUP

1. DOWNLOAD NETDOM.EXE 1.8:

ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/reskit/nt4/x86/

2. COPY THE NETDOM.EXE TO C:\%WINDIR%\SYSTEM32

3. CLICK START, RUN, TYPE 'CMD', THEN HIT ENTER

4. TYPE THIS:

NETDOM MEMBER \\COMPUTERNAME /JOINWORKGROUP WORKGROUPNAME

AND HIT ENTER.

5. THE RESULTS SHOULD LOOK LIKE THIS:

NetDom 1.8 @1997-98. Written by Christophe Robert - Microsoft.

Querying domain information on computer \\COMPUTERNAME...

Computer \\COMPUTERNAME is currently in workgroup OLDWORKGROUPNAME.

Changing LSA primary domain information on computer \\COMPUTERNAME ...

Updating trusted domain ...

6. REBOOT THE COMPUTER.

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Hi all

This is what i've used on my MCE PC to be able to join a domain and it's worked fine

DLL patching hero Rafael has found a great way to enable your MCE 2005 install to join Windows domains. Rafael, known for patching the now famous uxtheme.dll to enable custom Windows XP msstyle themes has found a reg edit in Windows XP Media Center 2005 to unlock the previously "greyed out" join domain option. This method is pretty complex but confirmed to work.

This will allow you to leave and join domains within Windows Media Center Edition 2005.

01 - Insert Windows XP CD.

02 - Start > Run > X:\i386\winnt32.exe /cmdcons

03 - (replace X: with the appropiate drive letter)

04 - Acknowledge prompt by clicking 'Yes'.

05 - Skip updating process by clicking 'Cancel' or by pressing 'Esc'

06 - After installation, acknowledge success msg. by clicking 'Ok'

07 - Start > Shutdown > Restart

08 - At boot menu, select 'Microsoft Windows Recovery Console'

09 - Select proper installation to log onto (default: 1) and press 'Enter'

10 - (If prompted, enter Administrator password and press 'Enter')

11 - Type (without quotes) and press enter: 'cd system32\config'

12 - Type (without quotes) and press enter: 'copy SYSTEM C:\'

13 - Type (without quotes) and press enter: exit

14 - At boot menu, select 'Windows XP Media Center Edition'

15 - Start > Run > Type: 'regedit' and press enter

16 - Click on 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE'.

17 - File > Load Hive...

18 - Browse and select C:\SYSTEM

19 - Specify key name 'BANANA' and click OK

20 - Expand: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > BANANA > WPA > MedCtrUpg

21 - On the right-hand side, double-click IsLegacyMCE value

22 - Change selected value to 1 and click Ok. (THAT IS NOT AN L!)

23 - Click on BANANA subkey (under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE).

24 - File > Unload Hive. Confirm.

25 - Start > Shutdown > Restart

26 - At boot menu, select 'Microsoft Windows Recovery Console'

27 - Select proper installation to log onto (default: 1) and press 'Enter'

28 - (If prompted, enter Administrator password and press 'Enter')

29 - Type (without quotes) and press enter: 'cd \'

30 - Type (without quotes) and press enter: 'copy SYSTEM C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM'

31 - (Yes, you want to overwrite - Go ahead and do it)

32 - Type (without quotes) and press enter: 'del SYSTEM'

33 - Type (without quotes) and press enter: 'exit'

34 - At boot menu, select 'Windows XP Media Center Edition'

35 - Join domain.

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Well, this may be a little bit late now, but just for the record:

I installed XP MCE '05 in Virtual PC, and during setup, it asks if I want to join it to a domain. I said yes (I have a VM with Windows Server running AD), told it which domain, and it worked! I'll post screen shots when I get a chance. Some time I'll try the method outlined above and see how that works.

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I can verify that the procedure outlined above does indeed work. It's now possible to change the domain membership. Now if just there were a way to join XP home to a domain...

EDIT:

It is also possible using a BartPE CD, and that way you don't have to use the recovery console which I personally don't like, and doesn't appear to work when you rename the admin account. You must have a registry tool installed on the PE CD, then you can just go to _REMOTE_SYSTEM\\WPA\\MedCtrUpg the same as in the method above and change IsLegacyMCE to 1. It works fine!

post-128497-1188616684_thumb.png

post-128497-1188616707_thumb.png

Edited by Idontwantspam
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