Computer setup after Active Directory migration
What's going on? Why is this happening?
In short: After a computer is "migrated," you have to sign into it with your NetID and NetID password rather than Waisman username and Waisman password. After this change, the computer will think it's your first time signing in and will treat you like a new user. You will need to set many app settings and Windows settings again. You will need to do this the first time you sign into any lab computer after it has been migrated.
In long: The computers at Waisman are migrating their "active domain" (AD) from the Waisman AD to the central campus AD. When you sign into a computer, it looks for a "profile," which is a combination of the domain and username. Before the AD migration, everyone's profile was on the Waisman domain. After the migration, everyone will automatically make a new profile by signing into Waisman computers using using their NetID and NetID password on the campus AD. Data on the Waisman profile cannot be easily accessed after the migration. Theoretically there are methods for migrating settings from someone's Waisman profile to their campus profile, but those tools are not currently available to our lab. Therefore we will need to either manually copy settings (Chris is working on a way to do this), or just reset them ourselves on an app-by-app basis. Waisman IT has indicated that they are in an extreme time crunch to complete the domain migration of all Waisman machines and do not have time to establish the tools to make this process work more smoothly.
Steps you should consider doing on your Waisman computer BEFORE the migration
As a general rule, anything in C:/Users/yourUsername will be *inaccessible after the migration. You will essentially be a new user on the computer. Your main priority before the migration is identifying and copying/saving/moving files that will become inaccessible after the migration.
*Technically after the migration, your old files are accessible to someone with an administrator account, so they can be recovered if needed. However as of August 19, Chris does not have an admin account in the campus AD system so you would need to contact Waisman IT.
Move files saved in C:/Users/yourUsername to another folder
After the migration, you will not be able to access anything in subfolders of C:/Users/yourUsername, which includes your desktop, downloads folder, and documents folder. To keep access to these files, move or copy them to a shared folder on the compuer (C:/Users/Public/), your "personal drive" (the M:/ drive), Google Drive, etc.
Sync browser favorites, bookmarks, etc.
You only need to complete these steps in the browser(s) that you regularly use. I copied these steps from an email from Waisman IT.
Chrome: Sign in with your NetID account, open Settings, go to You and Google, click Sync and Google services, select Manage what you sync, and make sure the Bookmarks option is turned on
Sync settings for any web-based apps
Make note of any programs you personally installed
If you personally installed a program on the computer, it probably installed to C:/Users/yourUsername/ and will not be accessible after the migration.
Programs installed by Chris, such as MATLAB, Zotero, RStudio, were probably installed to C:/Users/Public and WILL be accessible after the migration. Your individual settings for that app probably still save to your user folder though and will be lost after the migration.
Consider copying your entire user folder elsewhere
If you're particularly worried about losing something, just copy your entire C:/Users/yourUsername folder to your private Waisman M:/ drive. Note that this may take several hours.
Steps to complete on each computer AFTER the migration
Map network drives
Map the /smng/ drive
Open 
File Explorer. In the left pane, right-click on This PC and choose Map Network Drive. In the pop-up, change the drive letter to W: . Set the Folder to \\wcs-cifs\wc\smng . Check both checkboxes for Reconnect at sign-in and Connect using different credentials.
In the Enter Network Credentials pop-up, at the bottom, click More Choices, then Use a different account. This should make the User name field at the top completely blank. Now, enter your username as waisman\yourWaismanUsername. So if your Waisman username is bbadger, you would enter waisman\bbadger. For your password, enter your Waisman password. Then click OK.
To check if it worked, open Windows File Explorer and click This PC. In the big middle section, there should be a Network Locations section with a yellow "smng" folder.
Map your personal Waisman M:/ drive
Follow the steps above for mapping the /smng/ drive, except set drive letter to M: and set the Folder to \\wcs-cifs\wcu .
Copy back stashed files
If you copied your Downloads or Documents folders onto the M:/ drive, you can copy those back to your new Downloads and Documents folders. Note that your new username will probably be yourUsername.AD, whereas previously it was just yourUsername.
Reinstall apps
If there were apps that you personally installed and aren't on your computer anymore, you can try reinstalling them yourself.
Set up GitHub Desktop
If you use GitHub Desktop, follow the instructions in GitHub Desktop initial setup to add the repos. Note: DO NOT download the lab's repositories from the Internet. The files already exist on the computer - you just need to show GitHub Desktop where those files are.
Confirm remote desktop works
After the migration, someone from Waisman IT (or Chris if he has a campus AD admin account) will need to configure each computer to allow remote connection for certain users. Chris will try to make sure this happens ASAP after the migration occurs. After that config is complete, the general process for remote desktop will be:
- Connect to Waisman VPN
- Connect to your computer with the name computerName.waisman.wisc.edu, for example, razz.waisman.wisc.edu
- For your credentials
- Your username should be your Waisman username, or waisman\yourUsername. (For example, either waisman\bbadger or just bbadger.)
- Your password is your Waisman password
- Before or after logging in, you may see a scary-looking warning about the computer's identity not being verified, or about certificates not being trustworthy. You can ignore those; just say you want to connect anyway.
Patiently reconfigure each app
It will probably take some time to re-configure all your programs how you want them. Sorry about that.