Checking the join method on a Windows 10 computers.

Checking the domain join type of a computer used to be easy (here was only one :)). We could to go to System Information pane of the Control Panel. Here we can find out very quicky to which domain the computer is joined.

But when you AzureAD join a computer, things are not that simple. In this blog I will go over the different enrollment methodes (Domain Join, AzureAD Join and Hybrid Azure AD Join) and show how you can recognize which enrollment method has been used.

Domain Join

The regular domain join is the easiest to recognize, because it has been around for such a long time.

Like I said before, the easiest way to find this type of domain join is to go the System Information pane of the Control panel. But since Windows 10, there is another way to find it.

This new method uses the Settings apps. When you navigate to Accounts – ‘Access work or school account’ you will find to domain to which your current computer is joined.

Azure AD Join.

When looking for the domain of an computer is Azure AD joined to, some people get confused. Because they go to the information pane, only to find that the computer is part of a workgroup.

This can be confusing for a lot of people at first. But when we go to the ‘Access work or school’ tab in the Settings app we can see the following:

In this app it’s very easy to find out whether a computer is AzureAD domain joined or not.

Hybrid Azure AD Join

Because lots companies still have to have their computers joined to a local domain, hybrid Azure AD Join is a good option. This way we can use the best of both worlds.(learn more about it in this blog, from my colleague Sam).

If you want to visually check whether a computer is hybrid joined or not, we can go to the settings app again. Here we can see two entries. One that looks the same as a regular domain join and one that tells us the computer is AzureAD Joined.

But if we click on the accounts, we see there is an extra button (info). If you see this, it means your device if hybrid joined.

Command line

The tips above all used the GUI, but we nerds love command line. That’s why I want go tell you about the command dsregcmd. This command can be used to check the domain status of a Windows 10 computer. Find out more about it on the Microsoft docs.

Summary

If you want to find out the join status of a Windows 10 device, I advise you to use the Windows 10 settings app to get a quick status. Using the old method, Control Panel, doesn’t give you all the information of the latest methods.

Originally posted at Orbid 365.