Join Domains Using Offline Domain Join

Offline domain join is a new process that computers running Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2 can use to join a domain without contacting a domain controller. This process makes it possible to join computers to a domain in locations where there is no connectivity to a corporate network.

Using offline domain join, target computers can be joined to the domain when they initially start after the installation of the target operating system. No additional restart is required to complete the domain-join process, which can significantly reduce the overall time required for wide-scale VM deployments.

The offline domain join is a variant on joining domains by modifying the Unattend.xml file. The Unattend.xml file in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 includes the Microsoft-Windows-UnattendJoin/Identification/Provisioning section, which includes the configuration settings for performing a domain join.

For more information about:

· The offline domain join process, see Offline Domain Join (Djoin.exe) Step-by-Step Guide

· Configuring the Unattended.xml file to perform offline join, see the section, “Performing an offline domain join by using an unattended operating system installation,” in Offline Domain Join (Djoin.exe) Step-by-Step Guide