[susangarwood84]

I moved a computer from one local network to another and screwed it up! It was working fine, but I wanted to change the computer name to more accurately reflect its place in the new network. It had been set up on a domain, but the other computers (or some of them) were just in a workgroup. So I changed to a workgroup and changed the name. Now when I start it up, the screen comes up like it used to where I have to press ctr-alt-del and then give the password. Well, the old password doesn't work, so I can't get in at all! What should I do and what's the difference between a workgroup and a domain?

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If the computer was previously used on a domain, I'll bet that you're trying to use the old domain account in order to gain access, which won't work now that you're trying to log in locally to the workstation in your workgroup model.

Under Windows, when you're logging on in a domain environment, your username and password are checked against the database housed in the domain controller, not against the usernames and passwords for local users to the computer, so you're logging in on the server, not the workstation (in simple terms). The account that you used to access the domain isn't stored locally, so to the computer now in a workgroup, it finds that the account does not exist in Security Accounts Manager for the local machine.

When you're pressing CTRL+ALT+DEL to log in, you'll see a Username box and a Password box, but there should also be a box that says "Log on to:". If that box isn't displayed, click the button that says "Options >>" and check to make sure that it says "Computername (this computer)" in the box. You'll need to use a local account for this, so if you never created any when you set up the box, you'll have to log in as the Administrator with the local Administrator password, making sure that the "Log on to:" box says "Computername (this computer)".

Brief recap of the difference between logging in on a domain and logging in on a workgroup is that the domain login accounts are stored on the server, and supplied usernames and passwords are transmitted to the server for comparision to the information inside Active Directory (assuming the server is Windows 2000 Server or Windows Server 2003), and in a workgroup the supplied username and password are compared to a database stored on the local machine's hard disk through Security Accounts Manager (SAM). Thus, even though two accounts may have the same name (domain account Administrator vs. local machine Administrator), they're not the same account at all. the Domain Administrator account (usually called DOMAIN.NAME\Administrator by default) exists on the Domain Controller (DC) and the local Administrator account (called COMPUTERNAME\Administrator) exists on the local machine (client). Once you leave a domain, you can no longer log in with a domain account because the accounts are no longer verified against the DC, since you've told the computer it does not have a DC.

[meighnot]

If the computer was previously used on a domain, I'll bet that you're trying to use the old domain account in order to gain access, which won't work now that you're trying to log in locally to the workstation in your workgroup model.

Under Windows, when you're logging on in a domain environment, your username and password are checked against the database housed in the domain controller, not against the usernames and passwords for local users to the computer, so you're logging in on the server, not the workstation (in simple terms). The account that you used to access the domain isn't stored locally, so to the computer now in a workgroup, it finds that the account does not exist in Security Accounts Manager for the local machine.

When you're pressing CTRL+ALT+DEL to log in, you'll see a Username box and a Password box, but there should also be a box that says "Log on to:". If that box isn't displayed, click the button that says "Options >>" and check to make sure that it says "Computername (this computer)" in the box. You'll need to use a local account for this, so if you never created any when you set up the box, you'll have to log in as the Administrator with the local Administrator password, making sure that the "Log on to:" box says "Computername (this computer)".

Brief recap of the difference between logging in on a domain and logging in on a workgroup is that the domain login accounts are stored on the server, and supplied usernames and passwords are transmitted to the server for comparision to the information inside Active Directory (assuming the server is Windows 2000 Server or Windows Server 2003), and in a workgroup the supplied username and password are compared to a database stored on the local machine's hard disk through Security Accounts Manager (SAM). Thus, even though two accounts may have the same name (domain account Administrator vs. local machine Administrator), they're not the same account at all. the Domain Administrator account (usually called DOMAIN.NAME\Administrator by default) exists on the Domain Controller (DC) and the local Administrator account (called COMPUTERNAME\Administrator) exists on the local machine (client). Once you leave a domain, you can no longer log in with a domain account because the accounts are no longer verified against the DC, since you've told the computer it does not have a DC.

[susangarwood84]

OK, that makes sense. After pressing ctrl-alt-del, there is a username and password box like you said, but no log on to box and clicking the options box does nothing. Well, clicking the options box simply makes the "OK" box appear or disappear. So I can't do anything.