Manually changing a domain controller to a standalone server when DCPROMO fails (281706)

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If you determine that it is necessary to manually change the domain controller into a standalone server, follow these steps:

NOTE: Before performing this procedure, you must advise the customer that this procedure will result in the removal of any domain accounts from this computer that were present prior to the upgrade.

1. Click Start, click Run, type regedt32, and then click OK.
2. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Security. The Security subkey will be unavailable (grayed out).
3. On the Security menu, click Permissions.
4. Grant the administrator full control of that key only. Click Advanced, highlight the Administrators group, and then click View/Edit. In the Apply onto drop-down box, click This key only. Grant the administrators group full control.
5. Navigate to HKLM\Security, and change the Upgrade value to 1. This makes the computer a standalone server.
6. Navigate to:

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

7. Edit the Userinit value by removing the path to Dcpromo.exe only.
8. The final path should only have an entry that looks like this example:

   (c:\winnt\system32\userinit.exe)

   
   Note: Before restarting, it is crucial that you reset the administrator's password to a known value, or create an additional account, and put that account in the administrators group. Failure to do so will result in an inability to logon to the computer because the administrator account's password has been set to an unknown value, thus requiring a reinstallation. This is required because by demoting this computer to a standalone server, you have removed the domain SAM that was in use prior to the upgrade. The only accounts currently present are those accounts that are present during a clean installation of Windows 2000 Server.
9. Restart the computer.
10. Remove the computer from the domain by following these steps:
    1. Right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.
    2. On the Network Identification tab, click Properties.
    3. Under Member of, click Workgroup, and then type WORKGROUP in the Workgroup box.
    4. If you receive a message stating that the computer account was disjoined, but could not be disabled, click OK.
    5. Click OK again, and then choose to restart the computer.
    6. After restarting, the computer is now a standalone computer in a workgroup.
11. Optional: Administrators might desire to disable the Autologon setting that was added during the upgrade. To disable the Autologon setting, follow these steps:
    1. Run regedt32.
    2. Navigate to the following key:

       HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

    3. Set the value for AutoAdminLogon to 0.