Windows 7 / Networking

Creating a Domain

A domain includes a server running Active Directory Domain Services. The domain controller could be running Windows 2000 Server or Windows Server 2003, but it's more likely you'll be working with Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 servers in your domain today. For the virtual network created in this tutorial, you'll use Windows Server 2008.

You can download a trial edition of Windows Server 2008 from Microsoft's download site (www.Microsoft.com/downloads) by searching on "Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Eval." You need to download the x86-based version (32-bit).

Note Windows Virtual PC and Microsoft Virtual PC do not support x64-based operating systems You can run VPC on a 64-bit host, but you can only add x86-based operating systems as virtual machines to VPC.

Before starting Installing Windows Server 2008 on vPC, you should have accomplished the following steps on your Windows 7 system:

  • Install Windows Virtual PC on the system.
  • Create a VPC machine named DC1 with at least 512 MB of RAM (1536 MB if possible), networking deselected, and a dynamically expanding virtual hard disk. Exercise 1.7 can be used as a guide. Note that this step doesn't install Windows Server 2008 but only creates the VPC.
  • Obtain an evaluation copy of Windows Server 2008 Enterprise edition. An .iso image can be downloaded from www.Microsoft.com/downloads and burned to a DVD.
[Previous] [Contents] [Next]

In this tutorial:

  1. Managing Windows 7 in a Domain
  2. The Domain
  3. What is Wrong with Workgroups
  4. The Domain Concept
  5. Active Directory
  6. Domain Security
  7. Joining a Domain
  8. Windows 7 Offline Domain Join
  9. Browsing the Domain
  10. Searching the Domain
  11. Custom Searches
  12. Assigning Permissions to Domain Members
  13. The Double-Thick Security Trick
  14. Creating a Test Bed
  15. Creating a Domain
  16. Installing Windows Server 2008 on vPC
  17. Configuring a Windows Server 2008 Server
  18. Promoting a Server to a Domain Controller
  19. Joining Windows 7 to a Domain
  20. Authentication vs Authorization
  21. Authentication
  22. Authorization
  23. Built-in Groups
  24. Organizing Users with Groups
  25. Group Scope and Group Type
  26. Creating Users and Groups in a Domain
  27. Using HomeGroup with a Domain-Based Computer
  28. Identifying and Resolving Logon Issues
  29. Hardware vs. Network
  30. Using Cached Credentials
  31. Password Expiration
  32. Determining Logon Context
  33. Logon Hours Compliance
  34. Restricting Computer Access
  35. Time Synchronization
  36. Understanding User Profiles
  37. Standard Profiles
  38. Roaming Profiles
  39. Implementing Roaming Profiles
  40. Mandatory Profiles
  41. Super-Mandatory User Profiles
  42. Modifying the Default User Profile
  43. Configuring Settings with Scripts
  44. Anti-Malware Software
  45. Microsoft Windows 7 Defender
  46. Third-Party Anti-malware Software