Join Windows 10 Professional To An Active Directory Domain Using PowerShell Direct

#Join Windows 10 Professional To An Active Directory Domain Using PowerShell Direct

#These are the commands to rename a Windows 10 client computer to GONZO and add that computer to a domain called domain.winrollup.int


#The Longer Story…

#Your computer may not need to be renamed so skip that if needed. Also the Add-Computer command sends your newly added computers to the Computers container by default unless you specify an -OUPath when running Add-Computer.

#Rename computer before joining your domain if your computer name doesn’t comply with server standards. Restart required.

#Join a domain called domain.winrollup.int. Restart required.

#You need to change the -DomainName from domain.win1rollup.int to what you call your domain. Use -Restart at the end of the Add-Computer command to automatically restart.


#A Bit More

#Specify a preconfigured Organizational Unit path when joining domain

#My domain is simple and this is not needed for me at this time. I don’t have multiple Organizational Units yet and I don’t need any Group Policies affecting this PC since I’m working with my Windows 10 management PC. I’m able to specify the -OUPath shown below, once I complete the step below to create an OU called ServerAdmins. This command adds the computer to OU=ServerAdmins.

#You are not able to specify another container besides the default Computers container, but there is a way to change the default container if you don’t specify an OU. I definitely don’t want my computers added to the default OU which is OU=Domain Controllers, so I don’t use this command switch unless I have created a new OU first. It has been suggested to create the OU and computer object prior to joining the domain, but I don’t need to do that at this point.

#The command below is used to specify an Organizational Unit when joining a domain, if needed.

#Create a new Organizational Unit on the server (Needs to be run on Windows Server 2019 with the Active Directory role installed and configured)

#If you preconfigure an alternative Organizational Unit on Windows Server 2019 then you can add your computers directly to that OU by specifying a -OUPath when running Add-Computer.