New Domain
When a server upgrade went wrong yesterday, turning in to a complete re-build, I decided to take the chance to change the PDC domain name. Whereas I've always logged on to the EPSILON domain (long story!) I now log on to the ROCKALL domain. This has been on my list of things to do for ages now. I've always known it would be a hassle though and put it off 'til now.
The biggest hassle is that a change of domain means a change of Windows profile on all the connecting PCs. Logging in to a new domain causes Windows to start with a fresh profile and, unless I am mistaken, there's no easy way round it. The only way I've found of handling the swap is logging in locally as an administrator to back up my profile, logging in to the new domain and then back in locally as the administrator. You can then swap all the important files in to the right folders and things are restored to the way they were. Not quite though. There's so much that will be forgotten. It's amazing how much you take for granted as it's remembered by your profile! Changing domains is almost as painful as formatting the whole machine.
It feels good to have got so much done this weekend though. Once again I have a fully-functional network I am happy with. Let's see how long the server can stay alive now. 1 day 2 hours 2 mins and counting...
There is the "Copy to.." button on the "User Profiles" tab of the "System Properties" dialog (on Win2k - I don't XP!).
I've not tried this across domains however it works a treat for creating template profiles and the like in the same domain.
Had a change from Novell 4.11 to Samba domain in our company several weeks ago. The button to copy user profiles is great but sometimes refuses to work and usually for management-class users...