Moving local user prefs to domain account?

[Macstone2]

I've been given the task of adding a handful of Macs to an AD domain. So far I've added 2 with no issues.

My problem is this: all of the Macs have been in use for months or more and have local accounts on them. I'm looking for a way to bring my users application, browser, and OS preferences from the local accounts of my users into their new domain accounts using the least administrative effort. I'm assuming that this will be as simple as copying parts of the users library over, but am unsure if this is the best way to go about it or what specific folders need to be copied.

I was also asked (and I think the answer to this is no) whether or not a local account can simply be changed into a domain account instead of going thru the whole process of restoring all the the users prefs.

Models are MacBook Pros, iMacs, and I believe 1 Macbook Air. All are Intel. If there is any more info that I can provide let me know.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[hiddenpremise]

using the least administrative effort

Well there is no such thing with this sort of task 🙁

The main two parts of the library you need to copy are ~/Library/Preferences and ~/Library/Application Support. The main thing you have to worry about here are POSIX permissions. Your best bet would be to copy the files from those folders over to the new account and then recursively apply full ownership to the user, group to wheel, and everyone to read only.

You don't have to worry about applications. They stay there no matter whether the computer is on a domain or not.

Also, Microsoft office stores all of it's info in ~/Documents/Microsoft User Data