Changing a domain user to be a local user

[David_W]

I have a laptop that has a domain user on it and I want to make it a local user that is not part of a domain. Can this be done ?

[snowmonkey]

Yes, this can be done very easily.

Go to system property / Computer Name / Click on Change Button / Select Member of Local Group instead of domain...click Apply, that's it. Please remember that you need to have local Admin rights in order to change the setting.


Cheers

[RAZman25]

There must be other ways, but what follows is the only I know, which is to copy the domain user profile to a [new] local user profile.

Here are the steps:
1. log on as a local administrator
2. create a new local user
3. reboot the machine
4. log on as the new user to allow Windows to create the default user profile settings
5. reboot the machine
6. log on as a local administrator
7. right-click on My Computer,
8. click on Properties > Advanced
9. click on Settings from User Profiles
10. click on the domain user (DOMAIN\username)
11. click on Copy To
12. click on Browse to go to C:\Documents and Settings\TheNewUserName,
13. click OK, OK, and OK
14. reboot the machine
15. log on as the new user

If everything works, you may then delete old user profile. You should also be able to rename the new user name back to the one you had with a domain.

Hope this works for you!

[snowmonkey]

RAZman25,

What you are saying useful too but if ONLY you want to use the domain profile on local profile, on the other word, copying the domain profile to local user profile.


Cheers

[RAZman25]

snowmonkey,

I did not see you already replied this one. We must have typed at the same time:-)

Now that I am reading back the original post, I see that I misread the issue. I got mislead when I read "domain user" and "local user". Right away I was thinking of "user", not the machine as member of a domain. Thanks for catching that up! Hopefully, David hasn't followed my advice:-)