Fix: The trust relationship between this workstation and the primary domain failed

If you are in tech support, no doubt you have faced this problem a few times.

In the past, one would simply disjoin the machine from the domain and add it back and resolve the issue this way.

I came across a solution to fix it through PowerShell, but it never worked.

However, in recent times, the PowerShell method has worked for me and this is what I do on the affected workstation to resolve the issue.

1. Check if Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5 is installed (browse to Framework or Framework64 folder in C:WindowsMicrosoft.NET). If not, download the package from http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=30653 and install it.
2. Restart the machine after install.
3. Download and install Windows Management Framework 4, which includes PowerShell 4. http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=40855.
4. Restart the machine after install.
5. Check PowerShell version (http://blogs.technet.com/b/heyscriptingguy/archive/2013/06/02/powertip-determine-powershell-version.aspx) to verify it’s version 4.0
6. Open PowerShell as Administrator and execute this command:
   [box]Reset-ComputerMachinePassword -Server Domain Controller Fully Qualified Domain Name -Credential Domainadmin account[/box]
7. Restart the machine.

You should now be able to log back into the domain.

Hopefully, this means we don’t have to go through the disjoin drama anymore 🙂

Thanks for reading.

Thank Sri 🙂