By Philip Churchill on September 06th, 2012
Skip Domain Join on WS 2012 Essentials with a Registry Key
If you are running Windows Server 2012 Essentials then any connected PC which is running Pro/Enterprise/Ultimate SKUs of Windows 7/8 will automatically be joined to the domain. Not so good for us previous Home Server users – But there is now a temporary workaround thanks to a registry key.
Before we continue remember this only affects the following versions of Windows:
- Windows 7 Professional
- Windows 7 Enterprise
- Windows 7 Ultimate
- Windows 8 Pro
- Windows 8 Enterprise
You will not need to perform this task for versions of Windows below these versions (e.g. Windows 7 Home Premium, Windows 8 Core), as these versions will not be domain joined automatically during the client install process.
On the client PC you do NOT want to be domain joined:
- Go to Start and search for cmd
- In the search results, find cmd.exe and run as administrator.
- Type the following command prompt:
reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows Server\ClientDeployment" /v SkipDomainJoin /t REG_DWORD /d 1 - Complete the steps on the Connect Computers to the Server Help topic.
Info from the Windows Server 2012 Essentials forums.
Share this WHS Article with Others:
Perhaps a better article would be to get an answer from Microsoft as to why they feel domain joining should be automatic. Otherwise don’t mess.