Can't Use /LOCALOS Flag with DJOIN

Question

I do laptop provisioning at home and something I use at the end is the DJOIN.exe command so the laptops will be ready for use when connecting on our offices'.network.

Typically if I want to do an offline domain join, I will use:

DJOIN /REQUESTODJ /LOADFILE .\[filename] /WINDOWSPATH C:\windows /LOCALOS

On most laptop models this will execute fine and allow users to login to their Windows accounts once they're on the office.network. I'm working with a new model today ( thanks supply chain issues! ) and even though it is also running Windows 10, I am getting the error message:

/LOCALOS specified but the current OS does not support domain join functionality.
The request is not supported.

Doing a google search for that exact message shows there are no results and most of the other results aren't for offline joining specifically as they include steps on the DC side of things -- which don't apply here since it's an offline join. I tried it without the /LOCALOS flag just to see what happens and it gave me:

/REQUESTODJ only operates on an offline (not running) Windows image
by default. The path supplied [C:\windows] is the current running Windows
installation. To override the default behavior and target the currently
running local operating system also specify /LOCALOS.
The parameter is incorrect.

Has anyone else encountered this and know why/how this happens and how to get past it? I didn't see any hints generated in Event Viewer; hoping to avoid a bunch of tickets down the line asking for domain joins once they've reached the office

Answer 1

MAJOR facepalm here.

Just posting this so there's a reference for others, but this batch of laptops have Windows HOME installed on them, not Pro. Per this page with Home vs Pro features , Active Directory / Domain Joining is not supported on Windows Home. Either install Pro on the laptops or return them and purchase a batch with Pro on them.