Add-In: WHS 2011 Media Collector v1.0

A Home Server user by the name of Viros has developed an add-in which duplicates what the HP Media Collector in the HP Media Smart Server’s used to do.

Version 1.0 can be downloaded from here:

Some notes:
1.It assumes (and in fact only works on) the standard media folders (i.e., SERVER\Music, etc).
2.Upon installation, you need to run the included Config program (need Administrator rights) to specify your user collection settings, as well as the server.  To make it more flexible, you MUST include the "\\" prefix to the server name for standard setups.
3.It will install as a scheduled task, so if you feel it hasn’t run in some time, then you can check there for issues.
4.If you go to the media folder and see a file named something like "Music – Username.LOCK", then it’s most likely running.  If you know it’s not running on any of your machines, then something likely interrupted the process.  9 times out of ten, you can safely delete this file if nobody is running it.
5.It organizes your collections by username, so if your usernames are the same across all machines, then it will drop them into the same folder, otherwise, it will have one per account.
6.The installer checks for this, but you need .NET Framework 3.0 or higher and Windows Vista or higher (x86 or x64).
7.You can add additional formats!  All you need to do is open "%ProgramFiles(x86)%/Nick Radtke/WHS 2011 Media Collector/formats.txt".  Add the extension you want to add to the appropriate section and make sure you precede it with a "-".
8.I’ve only tested it with WHS 2011, but it should also work with WSE2012 (and possibly even standard NAS boxes if the folder structure is right)

I’ve been running this on my 3 machines (Desktop w/ wired connection, Laptop w/ Wireless, and Surface Pro w/ Wireless) for about 3 weeks now and I finally feel confident in it enough to release.  I appreciate any and all feedback.

Future enhancements (based on interest):
◾Actual server add-in to display the collected item data as placed in the xml files on the server
◾Integration with launchpad Add-Ins pane.
◾A true 64-bit version for those who want one.

More information on this add-in can be found here.

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