Private Windows machine and joining to a work Domain

John_Mc

Hi,

I have a Windows laptop (W8.1) which is running on a Homegroup at the moment. I want to join a work domain and am wondering what will happen to my existing account and data.

I've searched and believe that it's just another account on the computer. My existing account will remain the same.

I obviously don't want to lose my data so said I'd double check on here first. Can anyone who's done this confirm please?

Thanks

28064212

Regarless of any change you are planning to make, you should have a backup. What are you going to do if your hard-drive fails, or your laptop gets stolen?

John_Mc

28064212 wrote: »

Regarless of any change you are planning to make, you should have a backup. What are you going to do if your hard-drive fails, or your laptop gets stolen?

Yeah I do have the files backed up. I use Gmail, Office 365, Dropbox & Onedrive as well backing up to a NAS.

I'm just trying to know in advance if I'll need to restore everything if I add to the domain.

28064212

John_Mc wrote: »

Yeah I do have the files backed up. I use Gmail, Office 365, Dropbox & Onedrive as well backing up to a NAS.

I'm just trying to know in advance if I'll need to restore everything if I add to the domain.

That's ok then

You should be fine, a Windows machine can have local accounts and domain accounts, shouldn't be a problem

John_Mc

Good stuff, will give it a go. Thanks for your help!

Capt'n Midnight

First thing to do is check your contract of employment.

Most places have a clause threatening to have you fired for connecting to the network without permission.

In any event you should talk to the network administrator.

ressem

If your computer is running Windows 8.1 home, it will have to be upgraded to 8.1 pro to permit creating a domain user on your computer.

If you have Windows 8.1 Pro, to answer your question, it will exist in a separate user folder to your existing personal account; e.g in a C:\Users\YourName.YourCompany folder if your personal laptop already has a personal folder called C:\Users\YourName. You'll need to prefix the username with the domain name to log on to the correct account.

The network administrator's password will be required to add the computer to the domain properly.

If it's a low security small business without a network admin or external IT management, you might be technically able to access company file and printer resources using just your domain user account.

Using home laptops is pretty scary to IT guys as it means that your personal computer could become virus or trojan infected and, for example encrypt and ransom all the network shared data to which your domain user has modify permissions.
Also issues with licensing software.
So get a written OK in advance.

Fysh

A much, much better idea than binding your personal computer to a work domain (with all the loss of control that entails - given that domains use group policies to define standard configurations for machines based on network policies that can overrule the local configuration, and which cannot be permanently overturned even if you have local administrator privileges) would be talking to your IT support and asking whether they have Windows To Go enabled on the domain. If your laptop supports USB3, they can provide you with a USB stick loaded with a generic Windows 8.1 Enterprise install preconfigured to bind to the domain - you boot your laptop from this USB stick and run the computer as required, with no access to your local hard drive/account and get on with whatever you need to do.

When you finish up, you shut down, unplug the USB stick, and can then reboot the laptop normally as desired.

On a separate note, unless the domain has been awfully configured, you'll need help from your IT support to join the domain anyway because you need domain admin rights in order to bind to the domain. It's not just a case of changing the local computer configuration to have the specified domain name.

John_Mc

Thanks very much for your replies. It's Windows 8.1 Enterprise and I'm the domain administrator so should have the permissions required to join and override group policies.

I'll take a look at Windows to Go as that sounds like a good option.