Comments on: Transparent Windows Workstation Domain Migration

By: Erik Harvey

Erik Harvey — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 21:31:57 +0000

Afternoon -

My 2008 AD server crashed. I had to start from scratch, so I reloaded the 2008 Server OS and created a new AD domain, DNS, DHCP, etc…. I have seven (7) existing Win 7 PCs that still need to be added to the new domain. They still are a part of the old domain. However, I did keep the domain names the same. In this case, I rather proceed with similar steps for reinstating Win 7 to the new domain. Has anyone simplified or created a step by step procedure for Win 7? If so and you’re willing to share, I’d appreciate it. Success stories would be great to hear, as well. Thanks to all of you for working hard on this…very helpful in many many ways!

By: Tim Woolfson

Tim Woolfson — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 10:37:22 +0000

Further to my earlier post – hope you feel like publishing me!!! So far I´m 3 machines in with 3 more XPs and a Win7 to do. The Win7 is looking messy but the XPs have been really smooth, even the desktop background has been migrated on each occasion on XP so far
Obviously you don´t mention at point 5 about the DNS requirement – I guess you consider that assumed knowledge. Personally I didn´t bother removing the credentials from the old domain marked with question marks at point 10 and 12f.
I did however find some quirks where previous domain administrators had played with user profiles in the past. I noticed windows recreating the original user profile between point 9 and point 15.
I also needed some assistance to work out which was the actual current user profile, these 2 helped
http://kb.iu.edu/data/aotl.html
http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/43597-how-to-get-a-users-sid/
And this: http://www.petri.co.il/software/objsid.zip combined with the ProfileList registry key in point 16 did the trick.

By: Nicky James

Nicky James — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 07:03:35 +0000

Plse help with a VISTA problem. I tried to convert my old domain user profile to a local profile least expecting what happended next. The profile of course as you know became unknown. I did not create a restore point to revert to. I created a new user and accessed all of the documents and applications except for one application which is picking up a changed hostname. I sucessfully imported all of the Outlook .pst files.
My main problem is I no longer have access to the domain and I should have preserved my Outlook for a few more weeks because I needed access to the phone book etc. How do I restore my old domain user profile so that I am able to login locally and have access to the Outlook .osd file etc – so I want to get back to the situation when I was a network user but working offline.

By: Desktop Profile preservation when migrating to a new Domain - Zytel KB

Desktop Profile preservation when migrating to a new Domain - Zytel KB — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 04:37:28 +0000

[...] Technique TWO [...]

By: Windows Server 2008 Reinstall and User Accounts

Windows Server 2008 Reinstall and User Accounts — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 22:11:51 +0000

[...] I actually just finished migrating my laptops over by using the method described in this blog [...]

By: mickey

mickey — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 03:30:04 +0000

very good, maybe, can add a step to delete old user profile in registry entry: ProfileList.

By: Ruben

Ruben — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 23:17:55 +0000

You’re my hero. You have saved me so much time and taken the anxiety out of upgrades and migrations.

Thanks!

By: Ville Walveranta

Ville Walveranta — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 17:58:47 +0000

Steve: I installed ADMT at the time, but deemed writing a script for it to achieve the switch more trouble than it was worth since the LAN I was working on only had some seven, eight workstations. Granted, if I had known how to use ADMT beforehand, it would probably seemed a more worthwhile option. I also don’t remember whether ADMT would’ve migrated the existing profiles on the client PCs (which was the goal of this tutorial), or whether it would just have taken care of the AD migration on the server side. It would seem to me the latter was the case but I don’t remember (or, possibly, know) for sure.

By: Steve

Steve — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 16:22:25 +0000

Just curious, are any of you guys admins in large corporate environments? There’s a Microsoft tool for this called the ADMT. You can migrate user accounts while preserving SID history and user profiles; this will save yourself a LOT of work and a lot of grief from the end user. This step-by-step would cause any self-respecting admin to put a gun to his head. RTFM, boys…

My $.02…

By: Bounrith

Bounrith — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 22:33:23 +0000

Thank you for your step by step. I found you from http://allinthehead.com/retro/151/recovering-a-windows-profile. I will build on your experience in my old blog one day. Kudos.