Windows 8 doesn't support connecting to domains
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I just joined a new company today, and for some reason they use a support company to handle their Windows installations, etc.
Since I have a new machine, the support company tried to install Windows 8 on it, but they couldn't connect it to the domain. After extensive research, they told us they will not be able to support Windows 8 because "according to Google, Windows 8 no longer supports connections to Active Directory Domains, file and printer sharing, or other services we require to provide support".
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@configurator said:
I just joined a new company today, and for some reason they use a support company to handle their Windows installations, etc.
They're thinking of the ARM version. Or possibly they've installed Win8 Home rather than Pro edition.Since I have a new machine, the support company tried to install Windows 8 on it, but they couldn't connect it to the domain. After extensive research, they told us they will not be able to support Windows 8 because "according to Google, Windows 8 no longer supports connections to Active Directory Domains, file and printer sharing, or other services we require to provide support".
Either way they're incompetent dumbasses.
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I second that. This was literally the first search result that came up in Google when entering "Active Directory Domains Windows 8"
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@configurator said:
Windows
8RT no longer supports connections to Active Directory Domains, file and printer sharing, or other services we require to provide support
FTFT. Edit: Oh great, two people beat me to it. Damnit.
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@DaveK said:
They're thinking of the ARM version. Or possibly they've installed Win8 Home rather than Pro edition.
I just checked, and they definitely installed Pro. My guess is they then got the domain configuration wrong somehow (e.g. mistyped the domain name), then Googled it and found irrelevant information.
P.S. I forgot to mention, a large part of my job is going to be developing Windows 8 apps.
Who needs competence, we can charge more hours without it!
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Haven't used Windows 8 but have been playing with Windows Server 2012 which I believe amounts to much the same thing.
There's a gotcha in the way this version classifies networks. If your Win8 workstation can't get ping replies from the default gateway for a given NIC, it will classify the corresponding network as an "unidentified network" and declare it Public. This test happens before the attempt to find and connect to LDAP on a DC in order to find out whether a private network is to be considered "Managed".
I'm not sure how Windows will react to an attempt to join a domain whose DC it thinks is on an "unidentified network" but would be unsurprised to find that doing so is hard.
In my case this issue cropped up because the Internet gateway on the network in question is a router managed upstream from us, and upstream has cleverly configured it not to respond to pings for "security" reasons. The fast workaround was to tell Windows to use the Linux box that hosts our local Squid proxy as the default gateway and let that forward stuff to the real gateway.
All that aside, your support outfit sounds like a bunch of dumbasses.
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Incompetence. We have three Windows 8 workstations in our office that are part of an Active Directory domain.
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@configurator said:
Since I have a new machine, the support company tried to install Windows 8 on it, but they couldn't connect it to the domain. After extensive research, they told us they will not be able to support Windows 8 because "according to Google, Windows 8 no longer supports connections to Active Directory Domains, file and printer sharing, or other services we require to provide support".
How much are you paying these cowboys?
I mean, what kind of support contract says they'll waste time experimenting in unknown territory rather than delivering the service you've agreed and paid for (and, presumably, they are properly-trained in)?
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@Cassidy said:
How much are you paying these cowboys?
No idea. This all happened before I joined the company. Knowing the powers-that-be, I think I can safely assume they didn't get paid for what they failed to do.
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@configurator said:
Knowing the powers-that-be, I think I can safely assume they didn't get paid for what they failed to do.
I'd prefer to hear that their contract was severed for the failure.
You're relying upon them to provide agreed support; them not fulfilling their commitments is costing you more in lost productivity.
Add Windows 8 Workstation to Active Directory Domain
