Windows 2008 R2 Domain Administrator Account Issue
One of my team members installed and setup a new 2008R2 box the other day. This is our first 2008 install so we are new to some of the basics of the 2008 OS. My first issue right of the gate is that for some reason I cannot login in as the domain administrator without typing the domain name in-front of the account name (domain _name\administrator). By default it shows that we are logging into the domain but as soon as complete typing administrator in the user name field the "Log on to:" changes to the local computer name. Any feedback is very much appreciated. Jimmy Holmes
June 22nd, 2010 10:05pm

One of my team members installed and setup a new 2008R2 box the other day. This is our first 2008 install so we are new to some of the basics of the 2008 OS. My first issue right of the gate is that for some reason I cannot login in as the domain administrator without typing the domain name in-front of the account name (domain _name\administrator). By default it shows that we are logging into the domain but as soon as complete typing administrator in the user name field the "Log on to:" changes to the local computer name. Any feedback is very much appreciated. Jimmy Holmes
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June 22nd, 2010 10:09pm

On Tue, 22 Jun 2010 19:05:35 +0000, Jimmy Holmes wrote: One of my team members installed and setup a new 2008R2 box the other day. This is our first 2008 install so we are new to some of the basics of the 2008 OS. My first issue right of the gate is that for some reason I cannot login in as the domain administrator without typing the domain name in-front of the account name (/domain _name\administrator/). By default it shows that we are logging into the domain but as soon as complete typing administrator in the user name field the "Log on to:" changes to the local computer name. Any feedback is very much appreciated. This will happen for any account name that also exists in the local SAM database. Paul Adare MVP - Identity Lifecycle Manager http://www.identit.ca
June 22nd, 2010 10:14pm

Thank you. So there is no way around this behavior? On any previous Windows Server OS you can designate via a drop down list whether you wish to have the administrator account login into the domain or the local computer. Its just seems odd to have to do this now. Jimmy Holmes
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June 22nd, 2010 10:39pm

Hello Jimmy Holmes, Please see this GPO: (You’ll find the object under the console tree \ Administrative Templates \ System \ Logon \ Assign a default domain for logon) This policy setting specifies a default logon domain which may be a different domain than the machine joined domain. Without this policy, at logon, if a user does not specify a domain for logon, the domain to which the machine belongs is assumed as the default domain. For example if the machine belongs to the Fabrikam domain, the default domain for user logon is Fabrikam. If you enable this policy setting, the default logon domain will be set to the specified domain which may not be the machine joined domain. If you disable or do not configure this policy setting, the default logon domain will always be set to the machine joined domain . Best regards, Harry This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
June 22nd, 2010 11:49pm

Thanks Harry, I'm going to look into what you have recommended, but I fear that I may not have been clear in my initial posting. By default the machine joined domain is appearing in the "Log on to" area, but as soon I type the last letter of the word administrator in the User name area the "Log on to" automatically changes back to the machine name. I can type any other domain account and can login into the machine joined domain no problem. Its seems to only be having a problem with the administrator account. Thanks for any feedback! Jimmy Holmes
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June 23rd, 2010 12:15am

Try simply renaming the local administrator account. I had the same issue. I did the following: Go to Control Panel --> Administrative Tools --> Local Security Policy Expand the Local Policies section. Highlight the Security Options section. In the right-side pane go to the option Accounts: Rename administrator account. Open the option and rename the administrator account to whatever you like. Log out and when you log back in you can use the domain administrator account to login. Hope this works. KW James
July 27th, 2010 5:23pm

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