Win 7 Logon screen - select domain

[adamchapman]

Hi Guys,

 

I've got three domains here (don't ask!) and I wondered if it is possible to allow the user to select which domain they log in to like in the XP logon screen.

 

I know that they can type domainname\user to log on, but it's proving a bit too technical for some people! Is there a way to enable a drop down domain selector box on the Win 7 logon page?

[Ric_]

IIRC you can also type username@domainname which might be easier for people if it's their email address?

[adamchapman]

Thanks for the idea - shame we use gmail though (don't get me started on how much I want rid of that!!)

 

eventually, I will be merging the domains into a single one for ease of management etc etc. But until then It's a little confusing for non techies!

[FN-GM]

It is not possible no.

[adamchapman]

thanks - thought as much.

Bit of a shame they've taken it out though

[featured_spectre]

According to MS, you should be able to associate logins with domains once they are logged in, by that i mean you have 1 username, and depending on the domain they need to connect too, before it logs in, it will give you the option, although I have never come across this.

[RabbieBurns]

According to MS, you should be able to associate logins with domains once they are logged in, by that i mean you have 1 username, and depending on the domain they need to connect too, before it logs in, it will give you the option, although I have never come across this.

 

I have, in a kind of way.

 

On ours, as soon as I type the username administrator, it changes the "log on to:" from the domain, to the local machine name.

[john]

I have, in a kind of way.

 

On ours, as soon as I type the username administrator, it changes the "log on to:" from the domain, to the local machine name.

 

Thats default on Win 7 joined to any domain I thought as mine does that and its annoying (and confusing to teacher to see you do it thinking they have to start doing that now when they don't.....)

[Gatt]

This is REALLY annoying when you want to login as the Domain Administrator... if you just type "Administrator" it defaults to the local administrator, so you always have to do either DOMAIN\Administrator or [email protected]

[FN-GM]

You could rename administrator account on the local machine to something like LocalAdmin.

[RabbieBurns]

This is REALLY annoying when you want to login as the Domain Administrator... if you just type "Administrator" it defaults to the local administrator, so you always have to do either DOMAIN\Administrator or [email protected]

 

I was always taught not to use the domain admin account for day to day stuff but to create personalised domain admins accounts for anyone who requires such permissions

[Mr.Ben]

You could rename administrator account on the local machine to something like LocalAdmin.

 

With group policy across your site as well!

[FN-GM]

With group policy across your site as well!

 

yep exactly, wont take long at all.

[adamchapman]

I was always taught not to use the domain admin account for day to day stuff but to create personalised domain admins accounts for anyone who requires such permissions

 

Me too - But only as an auditing tool to track changes etc

[hil]

Rename the administrators network account to a something different.

[featured_spectre]

I have different admin usernames for different tasks, and each admin account is locked down to a specific purpose. For me it goes as follows

 

Username - What they are for

 

DCon - Domain Controller Admin (Only I have the PW for this)

PAdm - Proxy Admin (Assigning proxies to the user groups etc)

IAdm - ISA Admin (Sort out firewalls etc)

FAdm - Filter Admin (Add new websites to the filter, as well as email addresses to the spam filter etc)

UAdm - User details Admin (Reset PWs, assign shared drives etc)

EAdm - Email Admin (Reset Email PWs, create new accounts)

GAdm - Group Policy Admin (Create test GPO's, apply GPO's, fix any GPO's etc)

 

Each admin account is set up to do those specific tasks, and my staff below me have local user admin rights on each PC.

 

This way I can track what account does what and from which PC, so if something goes wrong, I know what to fix, and who to go to if/when things go wrong!

[strawberry]

back to the original question, you can create a upn, which is basically the @xxx.com suffix to be anything so if even if your domain is zxy.local you can use zxy.com

[adamchapman]

Rename the administrators network account to a something different.

 

Bad move! - I've done this before and all sorts of problems occured - sometimes weeks after. as some apps that you installed a long time ago and couldn't be bothered to create a new dedicated username for no longer work as they use saved credentials. I had this with Sophos for example, or services failing to start...

 

Good idea to get around the win7 problem, but I think this one would cause more headache!

Edited September 6, 2010 by adamchapman
spelling

[sidewinder]

Bad move! - I've done this before and all sorts of problems occured - sometimes weeks after. as some apps that you installed a long time ago and couldn't be bothered to create a new dedicated username for no longer work as they use saved credentials. I had this with Sophos for example, or services failing to start...

 

Good idea to get around the win7 problem, but I think this one would cause more headache!

 

Yeah its the kind of thing you ideally want to do when you set up the domain. Ours is currently set to a random name which I dont like but for the same reasons I cant change it. Though tbf I've got most things using their own service accounts these days

[featured_spectre]

If you set it up from the start, there is no issue! Just make sure you dont edit things after!

 

If you have the facility too, add the accounts now and start using them, and use the old credentials for legacy purposes until you do a new build / new image