Hi all, I've a Windows 2003 R2 domain controller with WINS service installed. All workstations and servers in the domain are at least Windows 2000 or later. Can I safely decommission WINS? Have I to take care of something when I decommission WINS?

I would not remove wins till your off of windows 2000 and on to at least 2003 r2 and 7 above. But the question does depend on your network and dns setup.

Andrea, While WINS is not required by Windows 2000 or later, you may have applications on your internal network that depend on NetBIOS name resolution. Take a look at your WINS database. See if there are any computers that have registered services outside of the normal workstation, server, domain, master browser, etc... You could also easily test the dependence on WINS by scheduling a maintenance Window, shutting down the WINS services and see if any thing stops working. If all goes well, you would start to remove the WINS config from your DHCP scopes and remove the config from your systems that have it hard coded in their IP settings.IT Knowledge Base | itgeared.com |

Andrea, While WINS is not required by Windows 2000 or later, you may have applications on your internal network that depend on NetBIOS name resolution. Take a look at your WINS database. See if there are any computers that have registered services outside of the normal workstation, server, domain, master browser, etc... You could also easily test the dependence on WINS by scheduling a maintenance Window, shutting down the WINS services and see if any thing stops working. If all goes well, you would start to remove the WINS config from your DHCP scopes and remove the config from your systems that have it hard coded in their IP settings.IT Knowledge Base | itgeared.com |

Andrea, While WINS is not required by Windows 2000 or later, you may have applications on your internal network that depend on NetBIOS name resolution. Take a look at your WINS database. See if there are any computers that have registered services outside of the normal workstation, server, domain, master browser, etc... You could also easily test the dependence on WINS by scheduling a maintenance Window, shutting down the WINS services and see if any thing stops working. If all goes well, you would start to remove the WINS config from your DHCP scopes and remove the config from your systems that have it hard coded in their IP settings. IT Knowledge Base | itgeared.com | Exchange 2000,2003 is one such service that requires wins if no lmhosts file are setup.