Setting up Active Directory for a home environment?

I'm curious if you guys think it's generally speaking a good idea to set up Active Directory for a home environment including
my mother's laptop and all my laptops and desktops?

Especially my mother since she's a 'boomer' and isn't at all tech-savvy, requires my very minimal (non-advanced) technical help often times.

Do you think it's a good idea or a very bad idea to add her laptop to an AD domain controlled by me? Or should I stay with the default WORKGROUP? ADDS isn't due to remote assistance, I know that, I got Quick Assist for that and it works.

What are your thoughts? Yay or nay?

Bree said:

Definitely 'Nay'. To set up AD you'd need a PC running Windows Server, and left running 24/7. That's going to cost you a minimum of $500(US) for the OS software alone, suitable server hardware is not cheap either. Unless you are running a small business and need tight control of your employees' user accounts it's not really worth it.

https://www.microsoft.com/windows-server/pricing

Understandable.

On an off-topic note, your tag says "TF team". Does that mean you have mod powers? Like banning users etc?

Samuria said:

AD is not something a novice can setup and it's possible to screw all pc,s with it

Is it true it does deep tweaking of the Windows client, so even if I were to unjoin from the domain, the PC can still be screwed up?

Active Directory is not usually a good idea in a home environment.

Active Directory requires a controller that can only run on a server OS. It will not run on a client OS such as Windows 10. All clients must be running a professional or higher edition. Windows 10 Home edition will not work.

Active Directory can do a great deal, and that is the problem. It can impose a great deal of control over the client, or very little, it all depends on how it is configured. It is very complex and there is much to learn if it is to be used effectively. What you don't know can get you into trouble. This is far to complex to be explained in a forum post.

In the case of your mother, there is almost always a simpler way to do what you want. Giving her a standard account would go a long way.