Unable to connect to a domain network using Windows 7 Home Premium

Question

My OS is Windows 7 Home Premium and I am unable to connect to our company's network.

When I try to connect I get prompted to enter my username and password. However, I cannot add a domain. The domain\ prefix is automatically populated with my local desktop computer name.

Is this feature not available? Why does it force it with a local computer only? Can this be changed in the registry? Is there a group policy change that I can configure?

Right now I use VPN but it gets extremely slow.

Solution

Unfortunately, it is not possible to connect a Windows 7 Home Premium PC to a domain.

For Domain connectivity you would have to upgrade to Windows 7 Professional or Windows 7 Ultimate.

Microsoft's comparison site is here: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/windows7/products/compare

As you can see, Domain Join is only available on Professional and Ultimate.

What you can do, though, is use your local user/password to log into the PC, but provide alternate (Domain) credentials to map drives from Domain servers. This is done by selecting "Connect using different credentials" in the "Map Network Drive" dialog.