Logging in to a Windows domain for the first time remotely over VPN

Over the weekend, I reinstalled Windows XP on a work laptop as my laptop had finally accumulated enough junk and had slowed down enough to make this time investment worthwhile. I had figured that I would need to go into the office to join the laptop to the office Windows domain. However, I was able to VPN in and join the domain without any issues. The next challenge was to login using my Active Directory domain account remotely (outside my office – from home) when I had never logged in to the domain on this laptop.

It appeared that this would be more challenging than it turned out to be.  My initial thought was to use the “dial-up” option on the Windows XP login screen. Nope, that did not work as the dial-up option is to establish a basic internet connection and does not allow you to establish a VPN connection. I did some googling and finally stumbled upon the solution. Once you have added the computer to the domain remotely over a VPN connection, follow these steps –

1. Login to Windows using a local computer account.
2. Connect using VPN to the remote network where the domain controller resides.
3. Hit Ctrl-Alt-Del
4. Lock the computer
5. Hit Control-Alt-Delete again
6. Login using your domain account – it will work!

Simple, huh!