MS Windows Home Server

We are more than half way through the year already and August see’s Power Pack 1 (PP1) available in German, French and Spanish. By the end of the month Windows Home Server officially launches in Japan with a Japanese version too.

In September we are asked what we would think if there was 2 versions of WHS, a “basic” household version and a “advanced” household version and what would be the user limit for each version.

Also this month a job posting for a WHS Software Development Engineer gives insight that the next version of Windows Home Server, codenamed “Vail” will include Media Center integration.

October see’s even more MVP’s join the clan. Donavon West of Home Server Hacks, newcomer Sam Wood and Alex “Yakuza” from MediaSmartServer.com.

By the end of October it is announced at PDC2008 that Live Mesh would be available within the Windows Home Server product at some time in the future (and here). Also during PDC2008 it is announced that WHS would soon be available on MSDN.

The 1st of November saw Microsoft announce a 30% price reduction on the Windows Home Server software, bringing the price down to approximately $120 in the US and £80 in the UK. Some users experience issues when upgrading the video drivers on their integrated graphics or video card that has a Nvidia chip on it . Windows Home Server is further enhanced this month too, when Microsoft releases an update which fixes six issues with the product. And finally Microsoft’s diagnostic and troubleshooting tool, the Windows Home Server Toolkit has an update.

December see’s a leak that the model names for “Encore”, (HP’s codename for the next MediaSmart Server range) could be called the EX485 and EX487 and more news comes to light that the Windows Home Server software will be available shortly to MSDN and TechNet subscribers.

Finally the end of the month, and year the end of the year and HP announce that the next generation of MediaSmart Server’s will include Mac backup, online backup and smart power management amongst many additional features.

I have heard some excellent quotes this year about Windows Home Server and since we are coming to the end of the year, here are some of my favorites:

…the best little server for the working class!
Bob Robinson

…your story may be the 21st century version of the parting of the Red Sea! Perhaps Microsoft should market WHS as a modern day miracle!
Kevin Weilbacher – SBS MVP

…the simple fact is that WHS _just freakin’ works_. Without you having to do ANYTHING.
Author Charlie Russel

Windows Home Server could be better titled as "Windows’ Really Small Business Server."
Attorney Ross Kodner

And finally I shall leave you with this from Blogger Paul Hammond:

There are two types of people in the world.  Those who HAVE lost data, and those that WILL.  Which are type of person are you?

The year started in early January with myself being awarded as a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) for my contribution to the Windows Home Server community with this blog. Authors Andrew Edney, Woody Leonhard and Christoph Dommermuth from the German Language home-server-blog.de site were also awarded.

At the Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas Microsoft announced details of Windows Home Server Power Pack 1 (PP1), which would include Vista 64 bit Support and add support for the Chinese and Japanese language.

Also this month with sales being so brisk HP sells 3 months of MediaSmart Server’s in the first 3 weeks.

February see’s ZDNet tech writer Mary-Jo Foley reveal that the next version of Windows Home Server will be codenamed “Vail” and will also include more entertainment “capabilities”.

Further into the year, and by May Microsoft decides to not include the tool in Power Pack 1 (PP1) which allows you to back up your backup database.

Early June see’s the public beta of PP1 with a fix for the data corruption bug available to beta testers. Later this month Windows Home Server and other related technologies are displayed in the Innoventions Dream Home in Tomorowland, which is located in DisneyLand in California.

The beginning of July see 4 new MVP’s. Alan Ball, Henk Panneman, Colin Hodgson and Yoshihiro Okabe.

Also this month Power Pack 1 (PP1) is released to manufacturing (RTM) and HP release an update for the MediaSmart Server which delivers an enhanced media streaming capability and server-side anti-virus protection.

Over at MediaSmarthome.com Peter Red hooked up his Mac to the new MediaSmart Server to show us what it can do.

Read about it here.

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Also Christopher Price left a comment on our blog yesterday regarding the “Restore System from Backup” feature of Time Machine not being implemented for Mac users.

Chris states that:

“What that means is, while you can restore individual files that were accidentally deleted… you cannot recover a Mac from a catastrophic failure (won’t boot, lost, stolen, damaged, defective, etc).”

But there are workarounds and Chris tells us what they are in his post HP MediaSmart Now Does Time Machine, Well… not all of it. But, I can fix it.

From the depths of the world wide web we have found a technical paper from Hewlett Packard on how to manage a digital lifestyle in a mixed OS environment. The 12 page PDF document looks at how the HP MediaSmart Server can help you manage and share your digital media with both a Windows PC and a Apple Mac.

Of particular interest is the table rating the functionality available on the HP MediaSmart Server under Mac OS X.

You can download the PDF from here.

One of the most frequent questions which I have been asked today is, will existing MediaSmart owners get the updated features of the new server range?

Well it’s now official. I have word direct from HP that the Mac Backup feature, which is to be made available on the new EX485/EX487 models of the MediaSmart Server will also be available to existing EX470/EX475 owners as well.

HP have also stated that the server online backup add-in (Amazon S3) will also be made available and although no time frame has been given we are told that both features will be available soon via the HP Software Update utility which is built into the console.

This is good news to all of us who own one of the original MediaSmart Server’s, I just hope we get the new black scheme interface as an upgrade too, and additional software upgrades in the future. But knowing HP and how they have handled other products in the past, I’m sure we will!

HP’s campaign site, “HP MediaSmart Server – The Heart Of Your Digital Life” has been updated to include information on the new EX485 and EX487 models.

Comparisons, Specs, information and a movie are also available.

You can access the site from here.

The new datasheet on the HP MediaSmart Server EX485 and EX487 is now available for download.

The datasheet contains overall information and specifications on the software and hardware.

You can download it here.