Getting Dell pc from work, to work at home

[barefootbilly]

We have a few Dell's laying around here at work and I was initially told that all I need is a system restore disk from Dell to wipe away everything that's on there.

As of now, I can't login as any user because whoever used that computer I obviously don't have the password for, and the admin for our firm doesn't come in until Friday to give me that password.


The sticker on the side of the tower says Windows 98, but we have Xp on all of our computers, and that one was upgraded to XP a few months back. So this is where I'm confused, do I need the disc for 98 or xp?

How would I go about getting this to work normally at home?

OT: At home I have the regular Xp login screen, but here at work we have the ctrl-alt-del type login. what's the difference? both are xp pro.

 

[djnes]

Wow, where to begin. Your missing so much information, I don't think it can all be posted here.

The CTRL+ALT+DEL thing your talking about is called a domain login. At home, your computer is probably on a workgroup, hence the welcome screen. I'm surprised this needed to be said, because working in a company that uses domains, everyone knows their on a domain, and that they have a domain account, and so does their computer. Yes, everyone.

When you say work from home, do you mean by connecting through a VPN or a tunnel, or do you mean just some offline work to carry back and forth? As far as the restore discs, you'd obviously use the disc for whatever OS you want to have on the machine. Your company's XP licenses may not extend to home users...ours do, so it's possible, but I'd check into that.

You need to tell us what the computer will be doing, and if it's connecting into your work network or not. If it's VPNing into your work network, you'll definitely want XP, and most likely, if your company's IT group is worth a damn, it will have a domain account, and force you to use your domain account.

 

[barefootbilly]

ok sorrry about that.

First yeah I understand the domain thing. At work we have 2 options, the name of our firm (server) or Home (just the computer itself if server's down).

I just want this to be used at home for regular word processing/internet, no network or anything. I'll add a 56k modem to it later.

I want to rid this computer of all network/work related stuff and just have a fresh install of xp on this computer.

thanks.

 

[djnes]

If your going to reformat it, then I'd just use the XP recovery discs, if that's what you have available. If the PC is already configured for a cached local account (Home) then you don't really need to do anything. You can just bring the PC home and use it.