In this post we hope to give you the information you need to get the most from Microsoft’s Windows Home Server Toolkit, a tool and an add-in with many advanced features. It’s important to note that the Toolkit will not make any changes to your computer, it will point out where the problem(s) lie so you can make the necessary changes yourself.
Firstly we need to download the latest version of the Windows Home Server Toolkit from http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=98872. Once downloaded , and before installing, make sure that you remove any previous versions of the toolkit, as an upgrade will not work. Run the downloaded WHSToolkit.msi on your home PC (NOT the server) to install. Once installed, the components of the Toolkit can be located in the Windows Home Server Toolkit folder in the start menu, where you will find the following:
- Connector Troubleshooter
- Error Reporting
- readme.htm
Error Reporting is a command line utility which collects diagnostic logs regarding WHS, compresses them and sends them as a cab file to Microsoft for analyses. Take note of the cab file number (e.g. WER5054.tmp.cab) as it will be the only way to identify yourself as the sender of the file in case you need to contact Microsoft.
These log files maybe also useful to other support professionals when they are troubleshooting issues with Windows Home Server. In this case you can stop the cab file from being sent to Microsoft by pressing N when prompted and view the generated talq.zip file yourself or send it to the person providing support for you. This file is approximately 30MB in size and is located in the following location alongside the cab file (if sent):
- Vista: C:\Users\[UserName]\AppData\Local\Temp
- XP: C:\Documents and Settings\[UserName]\AppData\Local\Temp
A good log file within this zip archive to start troubleshooting from is talq.log
Connector Troubleshooter is a program that runs on your home computer to help you troubleshoot problems with installing the Connector software. In it’s default user friendly “simple mode” it runs a series of tests to check the most common Connector Setup problems, and recommends possible solutions. It does say that it can take up to 15 minutes to complete, but in reality it only takes a minute or two.
Once complete the program will close and a web page will open displaying a summery of the results. It also provides suggestions to help you successfully install and configure the Connector software.
