General Information

Microsoft discontinued the official support for NT4 domains in the Windows operating systems. However, with some modifications, you are still able to use later released Windows operating systems with a Samba NT4 domain. Anyway, consider migrating to a Samba Active Directory (AD) to avoid problems if a future update from Microsoft disables or removes the unsupported NT4 features. For details about migrating, see Migrating a Samba NT4 Domain to Samba AD (Classic Upgrade).

Joining Windows 7 and Later / Windows Server 2008 and Later to a Samba NT4 Domain

During the join, the following error message is displayed:

The following error occurred attempting to join the domain "SA":
The specified domain either does not exist or could not be contacted.

To enable the client to join the Samba NT4 domain:

  • Save the following content to a plain text file named samba_7_2008_fix.reg using a text editor such as “Notepad” or “Editor” (not Word/Wordpad/OpenOffice/LibreOffice/etc.):
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanManWorkstation\Parameters]

"DomainCompatibilityMode"=dword:00000001
"DNSNameResolutionRequired"=dword:00000000
  • Log in using the local Administrator account.
  • Double-click the file to import it to the Windows registry.
  • Reboot to take the changes effect.

Windows 7 / Windows Server 2008 R2: Changing the Primary Domain DNS Name of This computer to “” Failed.

During joining the machine to the NT4 domain the following error message is displayed:

Changing the Primary Domain DNS name of this computer to "" failed. The name will remain "...".
The error was:

The specified domain either does not exist or could not be contacted

You can ignore this error message or install a Microsoft hotfix on the Windows machine. For details, see KB2171571.

Windows 8.1 / Windows Server 2012 R2: Error code 0x80090345 launching Windows Credential Manager

After installing the November 2014 update rollup (KB3000850) the following error is displayed:

Error code 0x80090345 launching Windows Credential Manager

To fix this problem:

  • Save the following content to a plain text file named samba_8_2012_fix.reg using a text editor such as “Notepad” or “Editor” (not Word/Wordpad/OpenOffice/LibreOffice/etc.):
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Cryptography\Protect\Providers\df9d8cd0-1501-11d1-8c7a-00c04fc297eb]
"ProtectionPolicy"=dword:00000001
  • Log in using the local Administrator account.
  • Double-click the file to import it to the Windows registry.
  • Reboot to take the changes effect.

Windows 10: There Are Currently No Logon Servers Available to Service the Logon Request

After you successfully joined Windows 10 to your Samba NT4 domain, logging in failed and the following error is displayed:

There are currently no logon servers available to service the logon request.

To fix the problem:

  • Set in your primary domain controllers (PDC) smb.conf file:
server max protocol = NT1
  • Restart Samba.

IMPORTANT: Registry Changes That You Should Never Set!

If you changed these parameters, reset the values of both keys back to 1:

  • Save the following content to a plain text file named reset_RequireSignOrSeal_RequireStrongKey.reg using a text editor such as “Notepad” or “Editor” (not Word/Wordpad/OpenOffice/LibreOffice/etc.):
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CCS\Services\Netlogon\Parameters]

"RequireSignOrSeal"=dword:00000001
"RequireStrongKey"=dword:00000001
  • Log in using the local “Administrator account.
  • Double-click the file to import it to the Windows registry.
  • Reboot to take the changes effect.