I've seen several threads about this topic but I think my problem is something else. Our domain controller is Win2003 Server and when I login to the domain with WinXP system, it gets through the login screen okay but it hangs with "Applying personal settings" message for up to 2 minutes and then my desktop shows up. Now when I delete my user from the domain and create new user with same name, PW and settings, and then login to the XP machine, all my preference are reset to defaults. Is this supposed to happen? Is domain controller supposed to send my local machine's desktop settings everytime I log in? I checked the roaming profile and it is turned off. I can't figure out why it takes so long to apply my personal settings everytime I log in. None of our Win2000 workstations have this problem by the way. Only XP and it is fresh install of XP too. Any help would be appreciated.

Some answers: Long logons: most likely a result of incorrectly configured DNS. XP will attempt to get its bearings through DNS first... if that doesn't work, it will finally resort to a NetBIOS broadcast to see networked computers, including the domain controller. Win2K computers check for a WINS server before a DNS server, so they don't often have this problem. Configure DNS on the server with appropriate forwarders to your ISP's DNS servers, and point your XP client's DNS settings to the server's IP address. If all network clients are Win2K or WinXP machines, I would just get rid of any WINS assignements on the DHCP server and rely soley on DNS. New User: when you delete a user object, it's gone. If you make a new account with the same login/password, it has nothing to do with the previous account. The default user settings are loaded when you logon to the domain.

Also you may want to check to see if you have any weird GPO's on your domain... also check your WMI filters to see if your ou is in some crazy group...or association

try to make the PDC or BDC also the WINS server and DNS server for the domain. See will it help or not.

Check if your primary DNS server on your client is your W2003 server. If you use DHCP you can change it in DHCP Mark