Networking Questions and Answers - How to Join a Windows XP Client to a Domain

Baggad writes in with a networking question

Question:What are the steps to join a Windows XP client to a windows 2003 domain?

Answer: To join a Windows XP client to a Windows domain the XP client must be running Windows XP Professional and not Windows XP Home Edition. Right click on My Computer and choose Properties. Then go to the Computer Name tab. Where it says "To rename this computer or join a domain, click Change" you would click on the Change button. Under Member of check the radio box that says Domain and type in the name of the domain that you want to join and click Ok. You will be prompted for a user name and password that has the authority to join the computer to the domain. Enter these credentials and click Ok. Finally restart the computer and at the login screen make sure you pick the new domain to log into rather than on to the local computer. Some people like to make the computer account in Active Directory Users and Computers first but you don't need to do that if you don't want to.

Back to the Networking Questions Index

Back to the Main Answers Page

Back to the Computer Help Home Page