How to join Domain and convert local user profile in the new AD user profile?

Question

Situation: In a very small environment i have no ad server, only a share on an windows7 client which is used like a fileserver.

Now i want to do thinks a bit more proffessional and bought a little HPE Server with Vmware Hypervisor (free) and an Windows Server Essentials 2016 VM on it.

So i have nearly prepared everything and want to join the productiv clients (4x Windows 7 / 2x Windows 10) the new domain now.

Problem is that i want to convert their existing local user profile into their new ad profile. Severals settings are set in the local profile and the users aren't very "it-talented". So i want to give them the experience that not so much changed for them. In the User Profile are e.g. Outlook 2010 settings for an IMAP Mail-Account which sould not be changed.

Whats the best way to do this?

I found this post but i think its a bit old and from a time befor Windows 10 and Server 2016. So i don't know if the "correct answer" would be the "correct answer" also in the year 2018.

How to join domain and still maintain settings from unjoined user profile?

Solution

Here's a few articles on migrating local user accounts to domain. It's a fairly straightforward process. This should get you started...

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/24026.windows-step-by-step-migrate-local-user-profile-to-domain-user-profile-with-all-settings.aspx

http://www.itswapshop.com/tutorial/windows-7-migrate-local-profiles-domain-profiles-5-steps-and-5-minutes-using-registry-tweak

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windows/en-US/1404c6ec-6605-49c2-8e4b-6b32c76673b1/converting-local-users-to-domain-users?forum=winserverMigration

Comments

[frupfrup]

Thanks Eric, but are these articles "best practise"? for me they seem to be more some kind of sloppy-style --> gant full permission here and there and so on... do you have used this process?

[frupfrup]

also it seems to be primary for Windows XP

[Eric Gibson]

The first one is for XP, granted, but I'm not sure what you're asking for aside from "best practice". Are you having a specific problem with migrations? Have you tried testing any migrations so far? I wasn't intending it to be an end-all answer for you, more of a starting point that you can tweak to your particular system.

[frupfrup]

that is why i upvoted your answer :-) No i haven't tried it yet, i only heard that you should not only copy the profile due to Windows ID's and so on. But i am not sure if this is really an right information. i am thankfull for your answer and will try it but maybe there is someone else who had the same job to do and has another hint for me.

[Eric Gibson]

I understand. My advice: make a few "test cases" and use them as a reference going forward. Your priorities, in any migration, should be to protect user data and try to anticipate issues that could arise (see: "test cases"). Outside of that, I'm not sure what specifically you're looking for. Maybe you could run a few test migrations and let us know what issues you ran into. Good luck!