Renaming a PC and joining it to a Windows domain

If you need to rename a computer running the Windows 10 operating system and/or make it a member of a Windows domain, you can take the following steps. To see the system's current name, you can press the Windows key and the Pause/Break key on the keyboard simultaneously. Alternatively, you can type about in the "Type here to search" field at the bottom, left-hand side of the screen and then select the About your PC entry which is returned from the search. You can also type this pc in the "Type here to search" field at the bottom, left-hand side of the screen and then select the This PC app when you see it listed. For any of the three above options, you will then see an About window that lists "Device name," which is the system's current name. If you just need to rename the PC, click on Rename this PC. If you need to both rename the PC and join a Windows domain, then instead of clicking on Rename this PC, scroll downards in the About window until you see "Rename this PC (advanced)" and click on it.

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Determining the groups to which a user belongs

If you have a Microsoft Windows domain and want to determine the groups to which an account belongs from a command line interface (CLI), aka a command prompt, you can do so using the DSQUERY and DSGET commands. The dsquery command allows you to query the Active Directory (AD) service according to specified criteria. E.g. the dsquery user command finds users in the directory. By adding a user name at the end of the command, you can view information for that user.

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Remote Logon to a Windows 10 System in a Domain

When I attempted to log in remotely to a Windows 10 system that is a member of a Server 2012 Windows domain using a domain account, I saw the message "The connection was denied because the user account is not authorized for remote login." The problem can be resolved by logging into the system remotely using a domain administrator account and adding the accounts for which you wish to grant remote logon access to the Remote Desktop Users group through the Control Panel by selecting System and Security, Administrative Tools, and Computer Management.

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Cannot Connect to Domain

I encountered a problem with a Windows XP Professional system no longer being able to authenticate with the domain controller after I replaced the disk drive in the system and restored the system from a backup. Whenever the user tried logging into the domain or I tried logging in as the domain administrator, the following message appeared:

Logon Message

Windows cannot connect to the domain, either because the domain controller is down or otherwise unavailable, or because your computer account was not found. Please try again later. If this message continues to appear, contact your system administrator for assistance.  OK

The problem went away on its own, but only for a couple of days, then recurred. I took the system out of the domain and put it in a workgroup, rebooted, then put it back in the domain to correct the problem. Apparently there are a variety of causes for such a problem.

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Adding a Domain Account to the Power Users Group

To add a domain account to the "Power Users" group on a Windows XP system, take the following steps:

1. Click on "Start".
2. Click on "Control Panel".
3. Click on "Performance and Maintenance". If you don't see it, then you are in Windows XP's "classic" view and you can skip to the next step.
4. Click on "Administrative Tools".
5. Double-click on "Computer Management".
6. Click on "Local Users and Groups" in the "Computer Management" window.
7. Double-click on "Groups".
8. Double-clik on the "Power Users" group in the right pane of the window.
9. Click on the "Add" button.
10. In the "Enter object names to select" field, put in the domain account name. E.g. if the domain was "example" and the user name was "Beth", you would put in "example\beth".
11. Click on "Check Names" to verify the name you entered.
12. Then click on "OK", if it was accepted. A "name not found" window will open if it wasn't accepted.
13. Click on "OK" to close the "Power Users Properties" window, which should now show the name you added.

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Adding a Domain Account to the Administrators Group

To add a domain account to the local "Administrators" group on a Windows XP system, take the following steps:

1. Click on "Start".
2. Click on "Control Panel".
3. Click on "Performance and Maintenance". If you don't see it, then you are in Windows XP's "classic" view and you can skip to the next step.
4. Click on "Administrative Tools".
5. Double-click on "Computer Management".
6. Click on "Local Users and Groups" in the "Computer Management" window.
7. Double-click on "Groups".
8. Double-clik on the "Administrators" group in the right pane of the window.
9. Click on the "Add" button.
10. In the "Enter object names to select" field, put in the domain account name. E.g. if the domain was "example" and the user name was "Sally", you would put in "example\sally".
11. Click on "Check Names" to verify the name you entered.
12. Then click on "OK", if it was accepted. A "name not found" window will open if it wasn't accepted.
13. Click on "OK" to close the "Administrators Properties" window, which should now show the name you added.

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Clocks Skewed

I found entries in a Windows XP system's application log stating "the clocks on the client and server machines are skewed" and entries in the application log on the server referring to Kerberos problems stating "the ticket used against that server is not yet valid (in relationshiop to that server time). Contact your system administrator to make sure the client and server times are in sync". I found the problem was due to the fact that the Windows Time service, aka w32tm, was not running on the server, which was the domain controller for the domain.

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