No "Log On To: prompt local or domain 1

[attrofy]

I have an XP box that I removed from the domain, and put into a local workgroup. When I reboot, and press CTRL+ALT+DEL I get the logon prompt, but under the options, there is no "Log On To" prompt. I believe this is preventing me from accessing the local administrator account. I have tried forcing the name to the domain with the DOMAIN/username, and Username@DOMAIN but I cant logon locally or to the domain.

I need a few critical files out of a users profile and am trying to avoid anything drastic.

I noticed when exploring to the PC when it is turned on (not loged on) it prompts me for a password - but has the username greyed out to "Username/GUEST". Is it possible it is trying to log to the domain as a guest (guest services disabled)? Any thoughts or advice greatly appreciated.

Anyway to restore to a previous setting or force the PC to log on locally? I have read a few issues with resetting the local Admin password and reinstalling windows - but I don't believe that is my problem as I can't log to "local".

Thanks again for any advice

 

[attrofy]

One correction, when surfing to the machine, it has COMPUTERNAME/Guest greyed out - not username. This doesn't make any sense, as the workgroup I joined it (same name as the domain coincidentaly) has other PC's in the workgroup. Those are all accessible from the Domain.

 

[Roadki11]

When any pc is not in a domain or has been removed from a domain you will never see the "Log on to" drop down box because there is no other place the pc can log on to except the local machine, hence the option is not available. In this configuration you need to use the local administrator credentials not the domain administrator credentials. If you dont know the local admin password you can use a product called ERD Commander, not free but makes this recovery task a 2 minute job. The reason you see that COMPUTERNAME/Guest greyed out is because its a security policy, when the computer was a domain member the policy is by default set at "Classic - local users authenticate as themselves" some XP standalone configs are set at "Guest only - local users authenticate as guest". To change this if you ever get into the box as an admin go to Administrator Tools then Local Security Settings, under Local Policies, Security Options, the policy you want is Network access: Sharing and security model for local accounts, change it to Classic.

Hope this helps,

RoadKi11

 

[attrofy]

Thanks for the info. I am confused why I can't logon to the local admin (it is possible I am using the wrong password). So the thought is a password reset tool might allow me in. I will give that a try. If that fails, I am going to try a repair install. Thanks for the help.

 

[attrofy]

For future use, anyone finding this thread, I was able to change the administrator password (it appears it was never configured???) using a tool from thread 779-1174557 (drew1701d)

http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/

- NT (XP) Password and Registry Editor.

This tool works great, and shows the status of every user in the /windows/system32/config/ folder. In my case it showed Administrator was locked or disabled, and was able to be reconfigured. I am guessing this is the local profile as the domain one must have been configured on the domain (obviously). Interestingly, two domain users did not show in the above folder, but their profiles are under the Documents and Settings folder - which I guess makes sense for local vs. domain.

Anyway, I hope someone finds this useful. Thanks again to Roadki11 for getting me headed in the rigth direction. After thinking about what you wrote, I knew that - I guess it has been too long in dealing with machines that were converted from non-network use to network use. So thanks again.