It’s no surprise that tech companies attempt to stand out of the crowd with the decision making in their products. Apple and Microsoft are notably the two companies that come to mind in this topic. Both show up in workplace which means IT teams need to be prepared for the integration. In this post, we will explain how to add an Apple computer into a Windows Environment.

1. Go to System Preferences > User & Groups
2. Select Login Options and hit Join for the Network Account Server
3. In the small window pop up, select Open Directory Utility
4. Select Active Directory on the new Directory Utility window
5. Type in the domain name in the Active Directory Domain text field
6. Type in the appropriate computer name in the Computer ID text field
7. Hit Bind
   1. You can hit the Hide Options drop down below the Bind button for extra settings to configure such as ability to create mobile accounts and if you want the domain profiles to be saved to the hard drive on first login.

Limitations

The main reason to go this approach for binding Macs to an Active Directory environment is for file sharing, printer sharing, and password policy enforcement with accounts. Other than that, it is best to possibly invest in a third-party service for Apple computers. This is because there are many other important features you can implement with this directory binding (such as group policy). This decision would need to be made based on amount of Apple computers in the environment and the purpose of their existence in the environment. If the computer has multiple users and there is only a few, it might be worth to make local accounts and added to the domain for file sharing capabilities. If there is going to be a large staff enrolling with these devices, then it would be your best interest to invest in management software such as Intune or JAMF to get full control of the devices.