How to Change From Domain to Workgroup‏

[ytest]

A neighbor's husband died last year. He ran a business from his house. She gave me one of his disktop Gateway computers (which had a dead power supply) that I replaced. Here is the motherboard. Upon booting, I notice that it is set to run on a domain. It has WinXP Pro. I am not sure if I have the OS disc. She gave me two WinXP Pro discs, without product keys. How do I convert the setup from domain to a workgroup?

Thanks in advance for your responses.

[Dortz]

Do you mean that the computer can only log on as part of a domain? like you are being blocked at the login screen, and cant login using it as a workstation?

Or, do you mean how to reset the way the computer connects to the internet, or how it identifies itself with a network?

If you can login fine, and just need to change the network settings for the computer, you can do that easily from the 'System Properties' menu. It can be found in Control Panel -> System, or just hit WindowsKey+Pause, and it will come up.
Those options are under the 'Computer Name' tab. You will need admin priviledges to do that.

If you cannot login to the computer, that means it requires a domain login to access it. You will need to reinstall. If you can access a user interface in safe mode, I recommend running a program called ' Aida32 .'

It will show a very in-depth version of the system info, and from that, you can learn the key used to install windows on that machine.

[jbennet]

you dont ned to reinstall, you can do it from safe mode

[ytest]

Well . . . that was a great start; but it ended with disaster. Apparently, there is a different password for the logon after I switched to the workgroup. The pw for tthe domain does not work now, which means I'm locked out.

Thanks for additional suggestions if you have any.

[ytest]

you dont ned to reinstall, you can do it from safe mode

It appears that the Administrator logon (via Safe Mode) is pw protected.

[hughv]

Gateway computers usually have a sticker with the Product key listed on it.
A reinstall sounds like the easiest fix.

[jbennet]

yeah, grab an xp OEM cd, and type in that product key from the sticker on the pc

if the cd has the product key embedded in it, you will need to use something like nlite to change it to the one on the sticker

[ytest]

Thanks everyone for your responses. By following these instructions , I was able to do the change over without incident after I logged in as Administrator.

[chegel]

Do you mean that the computer can only log on as part of a domain? like you are being blocked at the login screen, and cant login using it as a workstation?

Or, do you mean how to reset the way the computer connects to the internet, or how it identifies itself with a network?

If you can login fine, and just need to change the network settings for the computer, you can do that easily from the 'System Properties' menu. It can be found in Control Panel -> System, or just hit WindowsKey+Pause, and it will come up. Those options are under the 'Computer Name' tab. You will need admin priviledges to do that.

If you cannot login to the computer, that means it requires a domain login to access it. You will need to reinstall. If you can access a user interface in safe mode, I recommend running a program called ' Aida32 .'

It will show a very in-depth version of the system info, and from that, you can learn the key used to install windows on that machine.

I have several computers that were on a previous domain that I just need as workstation on a workgroup. I was able to login, changed domain to workgroup, reboot, and now cannot login?