Hi.

I have a Windows NT Server 4.0 machine that was serving as PDC for a small office network. We now want to move away from a Domain-based network to a Workgroup. Another machine (Linux box running Samba) will be Preferred Master Browser, DHCP server, etc. (but not DC). The plan is to move from NT (Server & Workstation) to Win2K.

My questions:

On the former Server (running NT Server) there doesnt seem to be a way to change it from Domain to Workgroup (as with NT Workstation). Is there a way? Does it involve somehow re-installing NT Server (this is what I seem to be reading)? Do I really need to do this? I can still log on to the Server as before and see machines on the network though I'm not sure I can connect to all shares as before. What are the issues I may run into here?

On the workstations (assorted collection of 98, NT Workstation, 2000 and XP), it seems when I change them from Domain to Workstation and log in as the same users with the same passwords, it apparently assumes they are new people and creates new profiles with new home directories (such as "user.000"). The "User Manager" only lists the new users. I've discovered that I can edit the registry, see the keys pertaining to olad and new users (at least in NT Workstation), point the new users to the old profile directories and restore the previous desktop, documents, favorites, etc. But is there a sensible and a safe way to do this (that doesnt involve editing the registry)? Is there more to it than changing the profile directories? Will there be issues with the other versions of Windows?

The new and old users have different SIDs, I can probably change those by editing the registry as well. Should I?

Are there any issues I have not anticipated?

I guess this is a broad and wide ranging set of questions. While I'm fairly Windows experienced, I'm not that network literate (which may be apparent from my questions!) so I'm hoping for simple and concise answers (arn't we all!). If there's a WWW place I can look for a simple and concise discussion of this, I'd be happy for a pointer to it.

Also if I've not been clear or left out some detail (long as this post is!), I'd like to know and try to clear it up.

Many thanks as always in advance.

There isn't a way to change a PDC/BDC to a member server without reinstalling. I'd recommend either 1. creating another domain and not have anyone else log onto that.. or you could try a program called NTSWITCH which can change server=>workstation and vice versa. This would mean your server OS will become a workstation OS.