Joining a Computer to an Active Directory Domain

In previous posts, I set up a Window Server 2016 instance running Active Directory domain Services. I have also set up another VM, running a basic installation of Windows 10. In this post, I will demonstrate how to join a client computer running Windows 10 to an Active Directory domain.

Computers running Windows 10 Professional, Enterprise, or Education can join AD domains; Windows 10 Home cannot.

First, click the Start button. Then, click on the Settings icon (the gear icon).

The Settings window will open. Click "Accounts."

Click "Access work or school" in the left-hand pane.

In the right-hand pane click the "+ Connect" button.

The account connection wizard will appear. Since we're connecting to a local Active Directory domain, click "Join this device to a local Active Directory domain."

Enter the name of the domain to be joined, then click "Next."

Enter your domain credentials. The account you use does not necessarily have to be a domain administrator account, but it does need to have delegated rights to create computer objects in AD. Click "OK."

If you wish to create a local account on the computer at this time, you can do so here. Enter the account name, and select whether the account will be a Standard User or Administrator, then click "Next" to continue the normal new user setup. In this case, I will instead click "Skip."

The computer will need to reboot in order to finish joining the domain. Click "Restart now."

Once the computer reboots, the login screen will appear slightly different. In the bottom-left of the screen, you will see an option for "Other user" to allow domain accounts to log in, and underneath the password field you can see the name of the domain to which this computer is joined.