[myself248]

RTFOA. They didn't.

They used an internal ActiveDirectory domain of "Corp" as an example. An AD domain is not the same as a domain name.

....until it comes time for the Windows name service to try to idiotproof the user, and say "well, this doesn't resolve to an AD server here, maybe they meant it as a domain name, let me try appending .com and attempt a DNS query"

It's a case of the right hand not knowing the left hand's usability tweak would turn into a security issue.

Unquestionably Microsoft's fault, but it wasn't as simple as you make it out to be.

[andrewaylett]

"Let me try with the search domain. No, doesn't exist. Let's knock the first element off the search domain and try again until we find it. What do you mean you connected your laptop to a network that's not your work network so the AD server isn't accessible?"

[hackmiester]

Does the Windows DNS client actually behave this way though? I have never seen it adding com, or any other tld.