Getting Windows XP off of domains

[sanddrag]

I recently saved a computer from the trash dumpster. Remarkably it still worked and had XP Pro installed on the hard drive. Here's the only problem. It is set up on domains. So, instead of the normal XP login screen where you select the user, you get a screen telling you to press Ctrl-Alt-Delete and once you do you get network domain login (like this).

I have managed to reset the admin password but only for local login, so that does me no good until I can log in like usual.

So, can someone please help me out to remove the domain login? I know there's got to be a way to do it, whether it be through some sort of Linux LiveCD or command prompt or whatever. I've searched quite a bit and tried a few things but with no luck.

Please help me make this trash into treasure. Thanks.

[Kyle Fenton]

You can try this but I don't know if it works

go to control panels-> system and go to computer identification-> then click workgroup instead of domain

then

go to users and groups, and there should be an option somewhere to get you back to the regular login

[fimmel]

i thought window had a log onto local workstation oly check box in the mor options on the login. maby not but u might try that
/forest

[Michelle Celio]

Instead of logging on to the domain, in the drop down box there should be something along the lines of "this machine" or "local" something similar as to the way the pc is set up. Drop me an IM and I can help you better since it varies from PC to PC.

Ah who am I kidding.. Fdisk format re-install do dah do dah! (Sung to Camptown Races)

If you can get it to log in, right click my computer properties, computer name and then change and just join the workgroup (machines normally come in the work group WORKGROUP)

[Matt Krass]

Chances are there's all kinds of residual left over, you might really want to just torch the OS and reinstall if you have that option

[sanddrag]

There is a "this computer" option but I still can't log in. I don't want to resinstall the OS. I'd like to keep it. Any help?

[Adam Richards]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

There is a "this computer" option but I still can't log in. I don't want to resinstall the OS. I'd like to keep it. Any help?

You really should reinstall the OS if it was someone else's computer. Their files could be confidential, and viewing them would be breaking the law.

[SamC]

Originally Posted by Adam Richards

You really should reinstall the OS if it was someone else's computer. Their files could be confidential, and viewing them would be breaking the law.

Sice he found it in a dumpster i'm pretty sure thier are no confidential files on that computer.

[sanddrag]

I was able to blank the admin password from a linux boot cd, then I was able to login in safe mode as admin, then take the computer off the domain, and now all is well. I'm actually posting from it right now. This was quite a dumpster find really, it has Dreamweaver and Office as well.

But now I have another question. My motherboard is carrying dual Pentium 3 500MHz processors. In My Computer "Properties" tab it only shows one. I have a feeling this is just due to Windows's stupidity but I'd like to be sure both are being recognized. Is there any diagnostic or hardware specs program I can run that will verify that both processors are working and being recognized. Is there any setup I need to do in XP to make sure that it is utilizing both processors?

I tried checking in the BIOS but the only thing it will tell me is the current temperature of each processor.

[Michelle Celio]

I know there is something you have to do in windows. I'm currently looking threw my course work for an answer. I will edit this post once I figure out where it is..

A hour later...

Symmentric Multiprocessing

I'm still trying to figure out how to implent it. A week out of school (not even) and I allready forgot how to do it. I will keep looking.

[sciguy125]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

Is there any setup I need to do in XP to make sure that it is utilizing both processors?

Is it XP Home? I was under the impression that only XP Pro is able to use dual processor.

[sanddrag]

Originally Posted by sciguy125

Is it XP Home? I was under the impression that only XP Pro is able to use dual processor.

no, it is XP pro

[BrianBSL]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

I was able to blank the admin password from a linux boot cd, then I was able to login in safe mode on "this computer" as admin, then take the computer off the domain, and now all is well. I'm actually posting from it right now. This was quite a dumpster find really, it has Dreamweaver and Office as well.

But now I have another question. My motherboard is carrying dual Pentium 3 500MHz processors. In My Computer "Properties" tab it only shows one. I have a feeling this is just due to Windows's stupidity but I'd like to be sure both are being recognized. Is there any diagnostic or hardware specs program I can run that will verify that both processors are working and being recognized. Is there any setup I need to do in XP to make sure that it is utilizing both processors?

I tried checking in the BIOS but the only thing it will tell me is the current temperature of each processor.

If you don't have the paper license for Office and Dreamweaver, they are not legal to use. Chances are pretty high that whoever threw the PC away is planning on reusing those licenses on their new computer and did not intend to transfer the license to you. Even using their XP license is somewhat on the sketchy side, especially if it is not the OEM license that came with the computer. Since it was joined to a domain, I would guess it is some company's VLK, which would certinally not transfer to you.

If you open up task manager, go to performance. If you only see one processor there, then windows isn't seeing the 2nd one. Since it is XP Pro, there should be nothing you have to do to tell it that there are two processors, chances are its a BIOS config problem.

[billbo911]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

But now I have another question. My motherboard is carrying dual Pentium 3 500MHz processors. In My Computer "Properties" tab it only shows one. I have a feeling this is just due to Windows's stupidity but I'd like to be sure both are being recognized. Is there any diagnostic or hardware specs program I can run that will verify that both processors are working and being recognized. Is there any setup I need to do in XP to make sure that it is utilizing both processors?

First thing to do is verify that in fact you do have two processors. If so, verify if Windows is seeing them already. The easiest way is to open task manager and see if there are one or two charts for the processor. If two, your done. If one, then there is hope
Right click on "My Computer" and choose "manage" then select "Device Manager".
In the right half of the window, expand the "computer" branch. It should say something like "APIC uniprocessor PC", the goal will be to get it to say something about "multiprocessor".
Right click on "APIC uniprocessor PC" and choose "update drive". Follow the prompts in the wizard and choose the driver for Multiprocessor. Finish out of the wizard and you should be done. A reboot may be in order. Understand that a multiprocessor system will have very little advantage over a uniprocessor unless you use multi threaded applications, if you do, then there is a huge performance advantage.
Let us know how it turns out.

[Tristan Lall]

To nitpick, you want it to say "ACPI Multiprocessor PC". This process will change the HAL (Hardware Abstraction Layer) to the multiprocessor version, which Windows XP Pro supports. For some unfathomable reason, whoever installed the OS didn't make the 2^nd processor visible to the OS (either by not enabling it in the BIOS, by physically removing it, or by installing while connected to a different motherboard).

Incidentally, speaking of using dual processors, various Windows NT 5 versions have different ways of treating this situation. 2000 will allow up to 2 processors (real or virtual) for Professional, 4 for Server, 8 for Advanced Server, and as many as you feel like paying Microsoft to validate for Datacenter Server (currently 64, as far as I know). XP, however, works differently: it can distinguish between real and virtual processors, and counts a single socket (even with dual cores) as a single physical processor. So XP Home can see one physical plus one virtual (or twice that for dual cores), and Professional can do 2+2 (or 4+4). Server 2003 works similarly, with more capabilities as you pay more and more for the software. By all accounts, NT 6 (Vista and Vista Server) will work similarly.

If you have any problems with this, might I suggest asking on the 2cpu.com forums. They'll be able to give you precisely the information that you need.

But, dual 500s? That's not going to be too fast...any Turion or modern Celeron will absolutely smoke it, multithreaded or not.