Hi all,

Just a quick question:
Windows Server 2003 & 2008 - they allow laptops to use their own profile when not wired to the LAN so that a user can access his emails and so on when the laptop isn't connected to the LAN/domain.
- ie users don't have to use an in-office profile & remote profile in Windows. The password still has to be entered as if the user was on the LAN, but clearly it's not communicating with the PDC or AD.

My question is what's this called, and how many times is a laptop (or disconnected tower/desktop) allowed to login to their profile using their normal domain profile on the machine?
At some point the domain rules will presumably force the machine to demand a connected login. But how many times will it allows login prior to that? Or is a date thing?
And what's the Srv 2003/2008 default for this time period or amount of logins?

Many thanks if you know!

cheers
Diz

Are you talking about cached credentials by chance?

There's no hard & fast rules on this, I've found people using cached credentials for a couple of years if they're on the road.

It happens automatically and you only need to connect to the domain once.

I don't think new users can log onto the machine, when it isn't connected to the network - I haven't tested it, but it is unlikely.

As to how long, how long do you need?

I take my laptop on holiday with me, which means a couple of weeks without touching base.

Well it's a complicated one.
I support an office here (25 people) that belongs to a worldwide multinational company (5000+ users across all continents). It's an affilate.
They have a sucessfully draconian policy regarding clients allowed to connect to the LAN.

The Finance director pays the salaries on an old Windows2000 client which works well, if a tad slow. It sits on the corner of her desk doing only this, and she uses her XP Pro laptop for everything else.
She refuses to upgrade the salary program, saying it works well and the modern equiv. the bank wants her to install is much more work for her.

Corporate HelpDesk sent me a sniffy mail some months ago saying I must NEVER allow the Win2k box to logon to the domain again, or all sorts of alarms would go off in the automated software and SMS etc and I'd be decapitated.
So, to guard against hardware failure for the only machine that has the software on it, (and natch, no sign of an install disk or CD) I virtualised it, put it on her laptop, and it runs very nicely within VMWare Workstation.

It's not allowed out of its box (it can't connect to the LAN or Internet or anything). She uses it monthly to generate a specific strange text file, & saves it to a USB stick which is slaved through VMWare to the virtual OS.
Once done, she shuts down VMWare, reconnects the USB stick to the laptop, and emails the file created to her contact at the bank who uploads it to his system and all the salaries are paid. Hooray. Obviously, we're not in the UK.
Welcome to Spain......

My question is about how long the virtual Win2k client will allow her to login every month with her password. Forever? It'll never be allowed to contact the domain again. I wonder if it will just keep on working................

She knows she must upgrade to a new software at some point, I've impressed upon her the risks of this system (I only go there a couple of mornings a week) and of course there's a copy of the virtualised disk on the local NAS which is backed up with everything else, should her laptop fail or whatever. But I've been saying this to her for some months and she's so busy she never ever has time for me and my technical problems.....

Any thoughts on how long Windows 2k might allow her to continue logging into the virtual machine on her laptop?

Ta
Diz