Hey everyone! With Microsoft making it tougher to set up local user accounts, I'm curious about the best way to join a Windows 11 PC to an Active Directory domain in 2025. We're currently using an autounattend.xml file to create custom ISOs for installing new computers. After the installation, we manually join the Active Directory, and then other tools automatically manage the rest of the setup. Any suggestions or insights on this process?
3 Answers
Do you have access to SCCM or Intune? Typically, domain joining is done through a task sequence during machine imaging. It's a really efficient way to manage the process if you do have these tools available!
If you're using Windows 11 Pro, when it prompts for a Microsoft account, just choose 'more sign-in options' and then select 'domain join.' That's a straightforward method to get connected!
I had no idea this option was even available! That's super helpful!
You can definitely domain join using the autounattend.xml file! Just create a user in the domain specifically for this purpose, and include their info in your XML file. You can also use WDS; just make sure you're working with the Windows 10 boot.wim, as the Windows 11 version isn’t compatible.
No, we don’t use SCCM or Intune in our setup...