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WHS PowerPack 1 - Come and get it. 

The team is pleased to announce that Windows Home Server Power Pack 1 has been released to manufacturing (RTM) and is now available on the Microsoft Download Center!

The English version is available now and German, Spanish and French versions will be available on the Download Center soon. Windows Home Server customers who don’t download it on their own will receive Power Pack 1 via Windows Update in August, and the new Chinese and Japanese versions will RTM in August, too.

As many know, Power Pack 1 provides a range of new enhancements, including support for home computers running Windows Vista x64 editions, backup of home server Shared Folders, improvements to remote access, more efficient power consumption and better performance. And, of course, it delivers a fix for the data corruption bug. Documentation for Power Pack 1 (Build #1800, to those who have been part of the beta testing) is available here.

Our OEM partners will be updating their systems with Power Pack 1 and HP will release a software update for the HP MediaSmart Server, delivering enhanced media streaming capabilities from PacketVideo, server-side anti-virus from McAfee and compatibility with 64-bit home PCs.

Windows Home Server can now be purchased in 50 countries worldwide and a growing ecosystem of third-party software developers has released approximately 60 Add-in programs extending Windows Home Server’s capabilities. To help fuel this development we have updated the Windows Home Server software development kit for Power Pack 1, including new support for the client PC side, i.e. notifications to/from home computers.

We continue to hear fantastic feedback from our customers about how Home Server is helping them protect and organize their digital media, access it away from home, and share it with friends and family. Thank you to our beta testers and partners for helping us ship Power Pack 1, and to the Home Server community as a whole, for its ongoing support and enthusiasm.

The Windows Home Server Team

Windows Home Server Team Blog : Power Pack 1 - come and get it!

 

It's been quite a while since we saw the first less-than-stellar renders of Toshiba's Scaleo home server, but it looks like the device is now finally nearing an actual release, with just about all the details you could want now out in the open. As previously announced, the server will be available in two varieties, with the Scaleo Home Server 1500 boasting a single 500GB hard drive and room for three more, and the Scaleo 1900 boasting two 500GB hard drives and, apparently, room for three more drives as well (although, as Slash Gear points out, that may be a typo given that the two are the same size). Otherwise, you can expect a Celeron 4xx processor in each, along with 512MB of RAM, 256MB of flash memory, gigabit LAN, four USB ports, and two eSATA. There's still no official word as to when they'll be available over here, however, but they'll apparently hit the UK in the next two weeks, with the 1500 and 1900 demanding £399 and £469 (or $777 and $913), respectively.

Fujitsu's Scaleo home server gets detailed - Engadget

I caught a nasty Trojan last night. Not sure where it came from, but it got in to the system all the same. It was the Trojan.vundo.DSQ virus. Started making little files all over the hard drives.. Here's how I got rid of it the easy way.

This AddIn is for all Home Server administrators who want to have full control over their Home Server at any time. It allows to jump to the following areas of your Home Server within the Home Server Console:

• Control Panel
• Printers and Faxes
• Administrative Tools
• Start Menu
• "My Computer" (Which really should be called "My Server" on Windows Server SKUs)
• My Network Places
• Workgroup
• Network Connections

Moreover you can launch a Command Prompt, PowerShell (if installed), Task Manager and Registry Editor from the menu. Thus, it is unnecessary for the majority of administrative tasks to connect to your Home Server via Remote Desktop..

Here's a Screenshot:

IMPORTANT: This AddIn is only intended for advanced users who have at least some experience with administering a Windows Server 2003! The AddIn allows easy access to areas where you can really harm your Home Server if you're unsure about what you're doing! E.g. you shouln't try to activate the server's Soft-RAID-Functionality for its hard drives. This will confuse the backup service permanently (which I had to learn the hard way).

As the AddIn allows access to areas which were not intended by Microsoft to be accessible from within the Home Server Console, you might experience some glitches or unexpected behavior, none of which is likely to harm your server. E.g. you won't be able to launch a new instance of explorer from the context menu of a volume under "My Computer". Evidently nothing will happen, but after closing the Home Server Console on the client computer you will not be logged off but will find yourself being connected to the server's desktop. There you will have to explicitly log off from the start menu. Those who cannot live with little oddities like this shouldn't bother with installing the AddIn. But those who always need full control over all administrative areas of their Home Server may find the AddIn somewhat useful.

Download Advanced Admin Console AddIn Version 0.1.0 Beta.

CRC-32 22A0C3AD
   MD5 3994606ECDB9667211205E2EB5EB9C7D
  SHA1 4D8B42386E86C3E89AE9D9EB39CAD1C4766B591E

Have a lot of fun with this release. Feedback is welcome via Email or at the WeGotServed-Forums.

Andreas' Space: Windows Home Server AddIn: Advanced Admin Console

This Windows Home Server Add-In is an extension of the standard WHS Server Storage interface. People who buy nice OEM WHS solutions get fancy LEDs that light up when a disk needs to be removed; us poor people with cobbled-together home-brew hardware don't. This add-in makes it easier to identify the physical disk you're working with in the WHS Console.

Select one of the disks, or expand the columns after the disk ID, to see infomation about the disk. It takes awhile to render because it's doing a WMI crawl to find the disk controller. You get SCSI bus/port/LUN, plus disk controller. That's useful information if you know which port is which on your SCSI/SATA controller.

For support, join the Microsoft Windows Home Server forums and post here.

Tentacle Software: Windows Home Server Disk Management Add-In

One of the great things about Windows Home server is the potential for easily sharing photos and files with your family and friends. In this simple example I’ll show how by using Whiist you can create a new photo album on your Windows Home Server in just a few minutes.

Over Thanksgiving Liz and I took a lot of pictures we wanted to send to my family back in the. Previously I would have used a service such as Flickr, but this time I’m going to use Windows Home Server and Whiist.

Here are the steps I took, with some helpful screenshots

1) Assuming you haven’t done so, download and install the latest version of the Whiist Add-In for your Windows Home Server.

2) Select “Manage Websites” from your Windows Home Server console. Click “Add” to start the Wizard and choose “Create a simple photo album to share pictures”.

3) Choose a location for your new album. I recommend that you keep your websites in one location, on my server I have a separate “Websites” share for this purpose.

4) Enter a new alias for your website. This will be used as part of the address for your album so can only contain letters and numbers.

Select ‘Finish’ in the Wizard.

5) After you select ‘Finish’ Whiist will open the folder you created in step 3. Copy your photos into this folder.

7) Send the link to family an friends

How to create a Windows Home Server photo album in minutes :: Shiny Things

I posted about WebGuide4 not so long ago, well now there is a version for WHS.

WebGuide for Windows Home Server enables you to remotely access, listen, watch and stream your music, photos and videos stored on your home server while away from home.

Integrates with Windows Home Server remote website via homepage link and single-signon.

Access your photos with thumbnails, "zoom" and exif-data.

Browse your music library and listen to it via the web.

Stream your videos/movies at multiple resolutions and bitrates.

Mobile access to your music and videos from Windows Mobile devices.

   

WebGuide: Windows Home Server