MS Windows Home Server

Microsoft’s diagnostic and troubleshooting tool for WHS has had an update.

The Windows Home Server Toolkit now works on Windows Vista (x64) systems as well as Windows XP and Windows Vista (32-bit) and the toolkit add in part of the package has also been simplified to make it easier for users to access relevant information when troubleshooting any issues that they may encounter with their home servers.

Windows Home Server Toolkit User Manual v 1.1

Windows Home Server Toolkit v1.1 (32-Bit)

Windows Home Server Toolkit v1.1 (64-Bit)

Earlier today an update for Windows Home Server became available. Known plainly as "Windows Home Server Update, November 2008" or KB957824 the minor software update fixes 6 problems that users have experienced over the following months with Windows Home Server:

1. Improves the interaction between home computers that are running Windows Vista and a Windows Home Server computer when copying files or folders to a shared folder on WHS..
2. Sometimes, WHS generated lots of notification messages about the files stored in shared folders, causing high CPU utilization and slow performance on the server. After this update is installed, applications such as the Microsoft Zune software, that may be running at the same time, no longer consume excessive processor resources.
3. Under certain conditions, WHS disabled duplication on shared folders after a new user account was created. After this update is installed, the creation of user accounts no longer affects the status of shared folder duplication.
4. When restoring files and folders from WHS the process may stop when it is 79% complete. New functionality to help prevent this issue is provided within this update.
5. When restoring files and folders from a Home Server Backup from an external hard disk drive to the software shared folder on WHS some issues could occur. This update adds functionality to prevent the unintended restoration of older versions of the WHS Connector software from overwriting newer versions of the files.
6. This update improves the search functionality when using remote access by allowing you to use accented characters with the Remote Access search.

The update will be downloaded automatically to your Windows Home Server via Windows/Microsoft Update, as long as Automatic Updates is enabled on the server. If not from within the Windows Home Server Console, click Update Now on the General page of the home server Settings page to receive the update.

More information is available in Knowledge Base article 957824 from Microsoft.

PerfectDisk 2008 is a defrag tool, and if you don’t know already, Raxco the people behind it have a version especially designed for Windows Home Server.

Now, if you fancy giving a copy a new home on your Home Server, just type the code PDTEN4FREE (do not cut & paste) during checkout and you’ll receive a 25% discount and a FREE upgrade to PerfectDisk Version 10 when it is released.

The offer expires before midnight on December 19, 2008.

More details are available from here.

If you built your own Windows Home Server and are using either integrated graphics or a video card that has Nvidia chips on it then you could run into problems if you upgrade the video driver.

A graphic driver update released in October is causing havoc on many Home Server installs by not allowing users to log in via the Console or Remote Desktop and even a driver roll back does not work forcing many to do a server reinstall.

The driver version at the cause of the problem is GeForce Release 178.24 which was released October 15, 2008 to add support for motherboards with integrated GeForce 9-series GPUs, mainly the GeForce 9400 and the GeForce 9300.

Version 178.24 has now been superseded by release 180.48 released November 19, 2008 which presently has NOT been tested alongside Windows Home Server, so use this updated version with caution!

Neither release has no mention of a compatibility issue in their release notes, although fellow enthusiast Christopher Price and myself have experienced this issue.

Nvidia Driver Downloads.

The office chain of stores, OfficeMax are offering the HP MediaSmart Server EX470 for a dollar short of 300 bucks through their US stores and online.

The $299 price even includes free shipping if you are within 20 miles of an OfficeMax store, but don’t forget to add on the taxes.

More details are available from here.

The Advanced Admin Console Add-In has had a home over at http://keinplatz.spaces.live.com (or Andreas’ Space for short) for the last year or so. But now the developer Andreas has decided to launch a new website dedicated to Windows Home Server Add-In development.

The new site “Andreas M’s Windows Home Server Addins” can be found here.

Over at TheDigitalLifestyle.com this weeks The Media Center Show chats to David McCabe from The Home Server Show about his top Windows Home Server add-ins including one’s for enabling Windows Media Center integration.

The podcast can be listened to from here.

We Got Served has published details that the session "Design Considerations for Building a Windows Home Server", from WinHEC2008 is now available for download as PowerPoint slides.

Download from here.

How do you fancy a HP MediaSmart Server EX470 for $314.99?

The HP store are having a sale on their $549.99 EX470. There’s a $100 instant rebate specifically for the EX470, a $50 Microsoft Server instant rebate and using coupon code SV2132 a $30 rebate. That’s a total saving of $180, bringing the cost of the EX470 down to $369.99 which also includes free shipping.

You can order from here and if they are out of stock just keep re-checking as new stock always arrives.

Thanks to J. Waire for the info and discount code.