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Resolved Question

How to remove computer from domain?

May 8, 2015 8:17PM PDT

My laptop was bought from a school so it's under its domain, but because I've graduated, I wanted to get rid of that domain. What I did was I changed the settings and now I'm under a workgroup, and now I'm not able to do a lot of things because I no longer have administrative rights. I don't know why because this is the only account I can log onto, as in there aren't any other accounts on my computer (they don't even have that one where you can type in both the username and password), so my sole account should be the admin account but it's not.

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My laptop is ancient (Fujitsu Lifebook T series, Windows Vista) and it drives me crazy already without all this nonsense but I just want to get rid of the domain first, but the problem now is that I can't even do administrative changes to the laptop so I'm stuck. I'm all for factory resetting but I don't even know how to factory reset this disappointing contraption. I'd also like to know what a domain does, like if a domain-controller can see the contents of computers under its domain and things like that.</div><span style="font-size: 14.4799995422363px;">

<span style="font-size: 14.4799995422363px;">I'm one step away from obliterating it with a sledgehammer but I don't own a sledgehammer so can someone help me?

Discussion is locked

styrobubble has chosen the best answer to their question. View answer
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Clarification Request
Can you ask the schools help desk?
May 8, 2015 8:25PM PDT

Can we presume this laptop was part of some program allowing students to buy a used device? I would think the school would want that device detached from it's network and would take care of that for you.

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Probably but
May 8, 2015 8:40PM PDT

The laptops were brand new when we bought them, it's just that they configured it so that those laptops are under the school's domain. The IT department may be of help but I really don't want to travel all the way just to ask them to remove from their domain a laptop I'm about to stop using in a few months. At the very least I'd like to undo my stupid decision of putting my account under a workgroup, do you know how to do that?

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Well, Vista is something I don't know
May 8, 2015 10:21PM PDT

but you're probably limited to two choices. You're part of a domain or part of a workgroup. The workgroup can be one person. As to admin rights, can you see "the" administrator account? You may need to unhide it. In Win7 it's done from an elevated command prompt using something like "net user administrator /active:yes" but I don't know about Vista. You'd still need access to an admin account which might mean using a reset utility. It could very well be that the college IT department made some group policy changes which can be undone but that's not something you can get step-by-step help with. I suppose you could try and make a complete HD image, see if a recovery partition exists, and try the factory reset. It's usually accessible by interrupting the boot process by using certain keyboard keys. Sorry but I don't know which for Fujitsu. At least with a complete HD image you could get back to square one if needed. I suppose it's also possible that Fujitsu can provide (for a fee) a set of factory disks. A sledgehammer might be less expensive. That's about all I can think of. Good luck.

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boot into safe mode
May 9, 2015 12:44PM PDT

see if an Admin appears. If so, don't enter a password, just clk on it.
You'd need then to enter networking area to fix what you need to do.

Best Answer

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That's one of those repeating questions.
May 9, 2015 2:53AM PDT

Fix? Wipe the drive and install the OS fresh. It will be without all the controls that they installed.

And if you say you don't have the Windows, that's common too. The thing is, someday some pest or mistake will wipe it out anyway. So plan for tomorrow.
Bob

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Answer
Re: domain
May 8, 2015 11:04PM PDT

I'd see if I could install a Linux variant like Mint and enjoy your laptop with that for a few months.

Kees