How to Get Windows XP Home Edition to Join a Domain
- 1). Find the full computer name and domain of the Windows Server environment that you want to log in to. If you do not have this information, go to the server machine. Click the "Start" button, then right click the "Computer" or "My Computer" icon and click "Properties." The full computer name (e.g. "server1.example.com") and domain (e.g. "example.com") will be displayed here. Write this information down, then go to the Windows XP Home machine.
- 2). Click the "Start" button, then click "My Computer."
- 3). Click "Tools" at the top of the screen, then click "Map Network Drive."
- 4). Click the "Drive" drop-down menu and assign a drive letter to the resource that you would like to access. This can be whatever letter you like.
- 5). Type two backslashes in the box labeled "Folder," followed by the full computer name that you wrote down in Step 1, another backslash, and the name of the shared resource that you want to access. When the line is complete, it will look something like "\\server1.example.com\folder."
- 6). Click the blue text, "different user name." Enter a valid user name and password for the domain that your are trying to access. Because your computer is not logged in to the domain already, enter the user name with the domain at the end, e.g. "username@example.com." Click "OK."
- 7). Confirm that the box labeled "Reconnect at logon" is checked, unless you are only accessing this network resource once. Click "OK." The drive letter you selected will now be displayed on your "My Computer" screen. Double click the drive letter whenever you would like to access that resource on the domain.
