What are the options for a temporary laptop within a work domain?

Question

This is primarily a home laptop, which comes to work once in a while.

Does the laptop have to join the domain absolutely, I thought there were different ways of handling this situation.

From his laptop the user wants to be able to access the files on his desktop pc part of the domain.

Then bring the laptop back home and the laptop not depend on the work domain at all.

The DC is win2008R2 and the laptop Windows 7

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 13 '10 at 12:55

4

Could the laptop user just connect to his domain desktop via RDP?

He may access file shares on the domain desktop, from the non-domain laptop, provided he uses his domain credentials to connect.

answered Aug 13 '10 at 12:55

jscott

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+1 RDP would be much more secure. Otherwise he can just open file shares like anyone else (he just needs a L/P like jscott said). – Chris S Aug 13 '10 at 12:58
VPN + RDP would be the solution I would consider first. Plus removes some of your liability of mixing "personal and business" system support. – Bart Silverstrim Aug 13 '10 at 13:09
+1 and linked from http://serverfault.com/questions/169807/how-to-better-set-machine-for-development-both-in-workgroup-and-windows-domain – Gennady Vanin Геннадий Ванин Aug 13 '10 at 13:20
Had you answered in my question, I would marked you as answer (though it is already closed) – Gennady Vanin Геннадий Ванин Aug 13 '10 at 13:27

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 13 '10 at 13:17

VPN + RDP is the first solution that comes to mind. As a alternative you could set up his personal laptop to have the option to boot from a VHD file with a work (domain joined) image. This has the benefit of allowing him to sync files between the 2 pcs and work offline.

What are the options for a temporary laptop within a work domain?

2 Answers2

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