I would try the pnordahl solution. -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Kurt Buff Sent: Tuesday, July 18, 2017 7:46 PM To: ntsysadm Subject: [NTSysADM] Boxed in on a Win10 VM
All, A colleague stood up a Win10 VM that was a clone of an original domain-joined machine, running on a ESXi/vSphere 6.0 host. I noticed this, and decided to help out - the VM clone was not fully functional - it's trust relationship with the domain was broken. I was able to log in using cached credentials with administrative privileges, so I set the local administrator password to something we know (we use LAPS here, so there's no telling what the most recent administrator password was). I then changed the machine name and joined the VM to a workgroup at the same time - something I've done probably hundreds of times over the years with never a failure before now. After reboot, the login screen shows only the username of the last successful login (a domain account, not a local account, even though it's not a member of the domain!). I cannot get it to switch to another account to log in, and since the only account available on the login screen is the domain account, and it's not joined to the domain, I can't use that account's password to log in. There are no backups, no restore points and no snapshots for this VM. I was able to boot into safe mode in the console, and start a command prompt - when it asked for the local Administrator account, that worked, so I know the password is good. I've tried to RDP into the machine, and am refused, no matter which credentials I try. I even tried disconnecting the NIC for the VM to see if that would shake loose some cached credentials, but no go, and it stubbornly refuses to show me any other accounts to choose for login. I suppose I could do a reset, but I believe there's 3rd party software that was installed in the interim, so I'm a bit hesitant to do that. Anyone have thoughts on how to proceed? I'm about ready to boot with a Nordahl iso, and see if that helps, but if push comes to shove, I I'll re-clone the original, and try again, and let the colleague know that he's lost any work done, but for the moment this is an exercise in overcoming - something. Kurt
