Windows XP HOME in a domain

I have a windows XP home laptop that is trying to get shares from the DC and also the printers, I can do it but I manually have to type in the UNC and connect to the share, it doesn't map it when I log on it isn't persistant... Any help would be great, thank you!

Kn1ght the confused.

The reason you have to keep re-authenticating is that XP Home machines cannot join a domain, or be managed by one. This is by design. However, as you can imagine, some enterprising souls out here have come up with ways of allowing XP Home to access domain resources without repeated authentication. Check out this link for more details.

Dalight,

Excellent, I will have a play with this later! I have a friend in this situation, so I can try it out on his system!!

that is true, however I know for a fact here is a way to make persistant shares and printers, without having to rejoin the domain and I FIGURED it out, you need to make sure both computers have the same workgroup and then you have to have your LOCAL computers login/password the same as a domain accounts login and password, this way, you never have to log in again, to access shares and domain printers.

That's great, Kn1ght! For those who may not find it convenient to change the workgroup of their XP Home PC to the domain name, or indeed change their login/password to match a domain login/password set, I am listing out the 2nd recommended solution from the link I referred to earlier, just in case it disappears. The actual URL is url]http://www.staffkit.com/resources/join_domain_windows_xp_home.htm[/url and the steps are as follows:

1. Log into XP Home using a local computer account that does not have a password.
2. Open My Computer, click the Tools menu, then click Map Network Drive.
3. Select a folder on your network by clicking on the Browse button.
4. After selecting the folder, click on the different user name link on the page.
5. In the Connect As dialog box, for user name enter domainx\user (where domainx is the domain you want to connect to).
6. Enter your domain user password and then click OK.
7. Check the Reconnect at login box and press Finish.
8. Now when you start up the computer go to My Computer and double click on the networked drive. This will cause XP to send the credentials to the Domain and allows you to access the drive.
9. Now you can access files and folders throughout the domain without having to your user name and password.

I think either this method or Kn1ght's should satisfy most users.