How to logon to a non-domain computer from one in a domain

I've met a rather annoying problem that should be very simple, but I can't seem to figure it out. I have a work laptop that is part of a domain, so my username is foobar\bob. I also have my home computer with no domain, just the username bob. I'm trying to connect to a share on my home computer from my work computer. It's asking me for my username and password, which is bob, but when I type in bob it assumes I mean foobar\bob, which of course doesn't work. I've tried to use hostname\bob, but that doesn't seem to work either...

What can I do here?

Both computers are running Windows 7.

Svish

Posted 2011-01-22T12:34:33.067

Reputation: 27 731

Do the "Bobs" have different passwords, or is it the same? – Tobias Plutat – 2011-01-22T12:39:03.273

Does Win7 (on the remote PC) allow you to enable account logon auditing in secpol.msc? It might make things a little clearer. (Audit events go to Security log in eventvwr.msc.) – user1686 – 2011-01-22T14:45:46.297

It defaults to domain\bob but can you take out the domain part and try again? I connect from a domain computer to a non-domain computer regularly and this hasn't been an issue for me -- but I don't have Windows 7 so it's not exactly apples to apples. – emgee – 2011-04-07T10:37:34.997

Have you checked the permissions on both the share and the folder itself? – VolrathTheFallen – 2011-04-07T10:57:23.813

Answers

I had the same problem. I was able to get around this by using the net use command. So basically, I just ran:

net use \\server\share password /USER:username

and then I browsed

\\server\share

and it worked. username was just the username (no domain part or workgroup needed)

OME

Posted 2011-01-22T12:34:33.067

Reputation: 116

Smart. Will have to try that out the next time I need it :) – Svish – 2011-05-29T20:51:39.257

I've just had the same problem after re-installing Windows 7 on my laptop. All of the above answers work, but provide a temporary fix for the issue.

For a more permanent fix, select Control Panel -> HomeGroup, then click "Change Advanced Share Settings"

For the connection type you are using (or all of them), scroll down to "Homegroup Connections" setting, and change the value to "Use user accounts and passwords to connect to other computers"

From now on Windows will use whatever you enter in the logon prompt, rather than prefixing it with your domain name.

Gavin Coates

Posted 2011-01-22T12:34:33.067

Reputation: 191

Try logging in as .\bob

This forces it to use the machine account and not the domain account

an idiot sometimes

Posted 2011-01-22T12:34:33.067

Reputation: 31

This is what I needed. I was trying to login as my local account when Windows prompted me for an admin account. Thanks! – Mike Hall – 2017-06-23T16:59:12.787

I had this problem and solved it by setting up a homegroup from one of the computers. You do this when you connect to the network - you can go into network settings and click the link that says what type of network you selected. If you select Public like most do then you need to change to Home. You will need to do this from one machine on the network first. Then go into the settings and View/Print the password so you can connect other computers to the same homegroup. This solved my issue as I had the same problem - work computer on domain not allowed to change domain when logging into a networked computer. Homegroup solves this.

HunterS

Posted 2011-01-22T12:34:33.067

Reputation: 21

just use ".\username" here ".\" indicates that consider user in local machine, and it will check for local user.

when ever you want to logon in your local machine, even if it is in domain we need to enter in a way ".\username" . and password.

thanks

manohar

Posted 2011-01-22T12:34:33.067

Reputation: 11

Welcome to Super User. Unfortunately, an answer posted several months earlier (that was downvoted) already contains this information. If you have something new to add, you can [edit] your post. – Ben N – 2016-02-15T19:49:17.217

I was able to login from one comptuer while accessing a shared folder on a computer that doesn't belong to a domain in this fashion: \username

So, if my username was 'jakegittes' then I would type \jakegittes into the login modal.

AperioOculus

Posted 2011-01-22T12:34:33.067

Reputation: 493

I had the same issue. I could ping the machine but not connect in Explorer. I was connecting to the other machine as a standard user. When I changed to an admin user (I mean admin on the machine I am connecting to not the machine I am connecting from) it worked by entering localhost\username

No idea why admin rights needed as I have lots of shared folders that are shared for Everyone not just admin.

Adrian

Posted 2011-01-22T12:34:33.067

Reputation: 1