I just dusted off the computer my daughter had used for high school. It is old and slow, but should suit my limited purposes. However, when I boot it up, it will not connect to my Wifi network, it says it is part of a domain, and windows does not control it. How to I remove myself from the domain, so that I can hopefully connect via Wifi.
What version of Windows?
To remove a computer from a domain, you must right click on the “My Computer”, Properties, second tab is COmputer Name - Select Change, put in a workgroup name (WORKGROUP is always good). Unfortunately, then it will ask you for domain administrator credentials and try to remove itself from the domain controller’s account. I’ve never tried this, but theoretically it should change to a workgroup anyway?
I assume since you are logging into a computer that hasn’t been on the domain for at least a month that you have valid local account credentials. Once you are off the domain, domain account/password will not work.
You need to have local admin privileges on the computer to change the domain settings. It doesn’t matter whether you log in with an old cached domain account or a local account, as long as it has admin privs on the laptop. Note that just being joined to a domain (was this laptop school-issued?) does not prevent a computer from using a wireless network. If in fact the laptop is unable to join the network due to domain-applied settings (aka Group Policy Objects), these applied settings and policies will still exist even after the domain membership settings are changed. There is no automatic way to roll back GPOs. It is highly likely the most efficient way of reusing this laptop will be to reinstall Windows.
A really really old laptop may also not have WPA/WPA2 wifi security; will want WEP security and that awful 26-hex-character password key.
Thanks, I’ve never had to remove a PC from a domain while disconnected from the domain itself.