Windows 7/8/10 – How to Join

a Domain
A simple but very important step

Written by: Aseem Kishore

Posted on: November 13th, 2017 in: How-To

If you’re adding a new computer to your corporate environment, you’ll most

likely need to join it to a domain. The procedure is fairly simple as most of
the work is done by the server. The process is also pretty much the same for
Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10.

For Windows 10, there is an extra way to join a domain and I’ll mention that
down at the bottom. I’ll also mention some troubleshooting tips if the option
to join a domain is missing, you can’t join the domain, etc.

Join Computer to Domain

To get started, click on Start and then Control Panel. Now click on System
and Security and then click on System. Finally, click on Advanced system
settings. If you’re not in the category view in Control Panel, you can just click
on Systemdirectly.

Now click on the Computer Name tab and click on the Change button at the
bottom:
Now click on the Domain radio button and type in the name of the domain
name that you want to join this computer to.

Note that on my computer, the Domain and the Network ID buttons are
grayed out! Why so? Well, it’s because I have Windows 7 Home Premium.

In order to join a domain in Windows 7/8/10, you need to upgrade to the

Professional or Ultimate editions. Kind of annoying, but what can you do!
The Professional edition also gives you BitLocker and the ability to backup to
a home or business network.

This is by far the easiest method and it works on all versions of Windows,
which is nice. In Windows 10, they keep changing the settings and certain
dialogs have disappeared while news one have appeared.

Windows 10 Join Domain Option

In Windows 10, there is the Settings dialog and there is the Control Panel.
Both overlap in many areas and it’s a bit confusing. If you click on Start in
Windows 10, click on the Setting icon (the gear icon), then click on Accounts,
you’ll an option called Access work or school in the left-hand column.

On the right-hand side, you’ll see a plus button called Connect. Go ahead
and click on that, which will bring up a Microsoft Account dialog. We’re not
trying to connect another account here, but you’ll see the options to join a
local Active Directory domain or join a Azure Active domain at the bottom.
If you click on local Active Directory domain, for example, you’ll then be
asked to enter in the domain name. You’ll obviously need this and other
information from your local domain administrator.

You might see a bunch of other sites saying that you should go to Settings,
then System and then About and clicking on the Join Domain button, but
that seems to have been removed in the newer editions of Windows 10. I
even tried enabling the local Administrator account and the option still didn’t
show up there. Now it really just gives you info about your computer and
that’s it. You can’t join a domain from that screen.

Troubleshoot Joining a Domain

It would be great if everything worked out the first time you tried, but that
doesn’t happen often. Even though joining a domain is normally a simple
process, there are a myriad of issues that you can run into. I won’t be able to
cover all of them here, but I’ll mention a few of the post popular problems
and solutions.
1. Use fully qualified domain name – If you’re typing in the domain name and
are getting back error messages, you should try using the FQDN instead of
the NetBIOS name.
2. Check DNS settings – If the computer is not properly resolving DNS queries
or if it can’t contact the DNS server, it won’t be able to connect to the
domain. Try to do an NSLOOKUP from the PC and server and check if the
entries are listed. Also, check the client to make sure it’s using the proper
DNS server and not external DNS servers.
3. Check network settings – If all other settings are correct, you issue is most
likely related to a port being blocked on the computer. Make sure port 445 is
open and also make sure the network type on the computer is Private.
4. Disable IPv6 temporarily – Sometimes Windows will use IPv6 when trying to
join a domain and if you don’t have IPv6 setup, it won’t work. You can try
disabling IPv6 on your NIC and seeing if that works. You can always re-
enable it after the computer is joined to the domain.