By on October 17th, 2014

Audiophile Optimizer Makes Your Server Sound Like a High-End Audio Computer

Audiophile Optimizer is software for Windows Server 2012 R2 to make your server sound like a high-end audio computer enabling to experience analog-like sound as you have never heard it before on a computer based audio system.

Audiophile Optimizer

Windows Server 2012 R2 and Audiophile Optimizer works very well together with JRiver Media Center, JPLAY, Foobar2000, MQn Player, Spotify, Qobuz, WiMP, Logitech Media Server, Acourate Convolver, dBpoweramp and many others.

Sound Quality: 

  • Analog sound quality rarely heard before on computer audio systems
  • Bigger soundstage, holographic imaging, more 3D-effect
  • Very well defined bass, deeper and more powerful
  • Lifelike, fluid and very precise sound reproduction
  • Natural air, timbre and image density
  • Ability to fine-tune the final sound presentation (through Sound
  • Signatures and Digital-Filter modes) to achieve outstanding balance
  • Sound Signatures and Digital-Filter modes are 100% bit perfect
  • Minimizes harshness in digital sound
  • Very low noise floor / blacker backgrounds
     

Features:

  • World’s first solution to offer Kernel-Streaming (for x86 & x64 Media Players) in Windows Server 2012/R2 core mode
  • Express mode for beginners and Advanced mode for experts
  • ServiceTool to easily switch between GUI/minimal/core mode, Configure Autologon, Shell Replacement, System Information
  • Doesn’t need JPLAY, but works exceptionally well with it
  • Works on single box systems and Dual-PC setups
  • WASAPI support in minimal server and GUI edition
  • ASIO support in GUI, minimal-server and core edition
  • No additional processes or tasks running on your system
  • Enables JRiver Media Center, Foobar2000 and many other x86-players under Windows Server 2012 in core mode
  • PCM, DoP, DSD, Multichannel DSD, all file formats supported

Feature Details:

  • 300+ optimizations with focus on the best music reproduction possible
  • Disable unnecessary system services and drivers
  • Optimization of your hard drive and file system
  • Optimization of USB & PCIe power management
  • Optimized power and performance settings
  • Optimized CPU and memory management
  • Optimization of task & IRQ priorities
  • Optimization of TCP/IP protocol
  • WASAPI/MMCSS optimization
  • USB Optimization
  • Additional registry tuning
  • Optimization of GUI settings

Priced at €100, a 14 day trial is available and a 53 page PDF guide to get you setup and configured.

More information on Audiophile Optimizer including 7 videos can be found here.

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By on October 16th, 2014

The Home Server Show Podcast Episode 271

home_server_show_small

Its time for episode 271 of the Home Server Show podcast, and in this weeks episode:

Jim Collison and John Zajdler join me to open up a conversation about Windows 10.  Windows 10 Technical Preview and Server are out!  We are just getting started so there is not a lot of in depth and under the hood.  I’ve got news , rants, and more!

You can find episode 271 here.

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By on October 16th, 2014

Add-In: My Movies for Windows – Home and Essentials v5.12 Pre Release 1.

My Movies for Windows - Home and Essentials

The pre-release version of My Movies for Windows – Home and Essentials is now at version 5.12 Pre Release 1.

Here is the change log for this release:

  • Added: Title list icons for boxsets.
  • Added: Option to show all languages when viewing posters and banners for TV Series and Movies.
  • Added: Support for Media Player Classic – BE in external players.
  • Added: External players how have a separate configuration for Blu-ray and Blu-ray 3D, in case you want to use perhaps ArcSoft TMT or Cyberlink PowerDVD for Blu-ray 3D, and other players such as MPC-HC for ordinary Blu-ray titles.
  • Added: The external player configurations now supports direct launch of DVD chapters, allowing for support for direct launch of TV Series on DVD episodes in external players that supports it.
  • Added: The external player configurations now supports direct launch of Blu-ray BDMV folder MPLS files, allowing for support for direct launch of TV Series on Blu-ray episodes in external players that supports it, and for using My Movies’ meta-data to determine the main movie before playback in players not supporting menu’s.
  • Added: The software now prompts the user if they would like to register hotkey changes for MPC-HC and MPC-BE, so that they can be used with Windows Media Center remotes and the My Movies mobile application remotes.
  • Added: Extended handling of Media Player Home Classic and Media Player Classic BC, allowing them to be used for stop and resume.
  • Added: Support for KPC packages of MPC HC and MPC BE as external player.
  • Added: Settings option to disable Windows Media Centers autoplay, for better handling of image files and inserted discs.
  • Added: Prompt for Play or Copy settings option in relation to disabling Windows Media Center autoplay.
  • Added: Preview option using MPC HC in Collection Management, allowing for easier tagging of DVD and Blu-ray titles.
  • Added: Filter functions for media type, mastered in 4k, cover type, chapters/episodes read, credits end start specified.
  • Fix: The new cover type and mastered in 4K options was not part of the preview.
  • Fix: MPC-HC was not marked to support BDMV and recorded tv files in external player settings.
  • Fix: Folder monitoring could keep checking a directory, if it was renamed between an event coming in from it, and monitoring being ready to check it.
  • Fix: The invalid path check in optimize database could in some situations re-occur with the same message, without being able to correct it.
  • Fix: The sort order was not stored correct when sorting the three list in Collection Management.
  • Fix: The title was used when creating set informations in XBMC – instead the sort title is used now.
  • Fix: European air dates could cause a storage problem when generating TV Series meta-data for XBMC.
  • Fix: In specific circumstances the reading of a date could fail, when the user was using regional settings that couldn’t be parsed as US dates.
  • Fix: Contribution of production countries for movies could send localized country names causing the contribution to fail on the server.
  • Fix: On some Blu-ray discs the reading of the chapter durations wasn’t corrent.
  • Fix: Issue with reset collection numbers, that could lead to incorrect numbering.
  • Fix: Issue with XBMC meta-data storage, where a title having one disc with both side a and b online was not joined into a set.
  • Fix: Incorrect message about upgrade on client machine.

As always additional information and download links can be found here.

add-ins • Windows Home Server • WS2012e
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By on October 15th, 2014

What’s New In Windows Server Technical Preview

Windows Server 10 Technical Preview Start Menu

With Server 10 being available for testing, website InfoWorld has a look at its best new features:

  • Start menu and the UI
  • The command line and PowerShell
  • Windows Defender
  • Hyper-V
  • Storage enhancements
  • Virtual networking
  • Identity and access management
  • MultiPoint Services
  • DNS Policies
  • IP Address Management
  • Web Application Proxy

An insight to where Sever 10 is heading but if you would rather watch a video instead then bigdaddy9z has a great 25 minute video also looking at What’s New In Windows Server Technical Preview:

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By on October 14th, 2014

Windows Bare Metal Recovery on the WD DX4000

WD Sentinel DX4000 Front

If you would like to know how to setup a recovery solution for the DX4000 when it is being used with Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard or Essentials then we have an article for you.

Troy Walker explains:

The recent editions of Windows has introduce some really cool features that allows a technician or end user to do some quick and easy system restorations. On Windows 8, they integrated some advanced recovery capability that will allows one to do a complete zero state or even a roll-back using restore points. The same applies to Windows Server, you can force a recovery mode by shift-clicking “restart” from the Power icon in the charm settings option bar and selecting “Operating System: Recovery.” This is great if you have a monitor, mouse, and keyboard attached. But what if the system is remote or like in our case, is headless? We got a problem, the machine might as well be on Mars. The solution is actually quite simple. Integrate TightVNC into your recovery image with networking.

A great tutorial for WD DX4000 users, which you can find here.

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By on October 10th, 2014

Add-In: Lights-Out for Windows 10 and Windows Server Technical Preview

A test build of Lights-Out has been released with support for Windows 10 and Windows Server Technical Preview.

Lights-Out for Windows 10 and Windows Server Technical Preview

Version 1.5.5.2227 has the following change log:

  • Fixed: Calendar issue introduced in build 2136. Server goes into standby 3 minutes before a calendar entry starts if server is already active and calendar entry has a forced end action
  • Fixed: Random silent service crash
  • Fixed: Idle detection in Mac Agent running on a Mac Book
  • Fixed: Occasional crash in network scanner with multiple network cards
  • Fixed: Log file write access issue
  • Fixed: Domain user access detection
  • Changed: Removed http prefix on wake domain to prevent a crash in windows store app
  • Changed: Logging in IPDeviceMonitor (if thread is aborted)
  • Changed: Task scheduler tasks are no longer hidden
  • Changed: Mobile web site shows active devices again
  • Changed: Mac Agent does no longer display missing license if run outside home network
  • Added: LightsOutCleanupTool (see below)
  • Added: Support for Windows 10
  • Added: Support for Windows Server Technical Preview
  • Added: Support for High-DPI Displays
  • Added: Windows 8 icon set for client application
  • Added: More translations to standalone installer
  • Added: Support for Mac OS X 10.10 (Yosemite)
  • Added: Workaround for unexpected client count down window

Download for WHS 2011, Windows Server Essentials and Windows Server Technical Preview with Essentials Role:
http://homeserversof…1.5.5.2227.wssx
Please uninstall your current version in Dashboard, then close Dashboard and install this build. See also http://homeserversof…g_lightsout.htm

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By on October 08th, 2014

Spin-Up Windows Server Technical Preview on Azure

With Windows Server Technical Preview being available for you to test, the fastest way to spin-up your test lab environment in the Cloud is to use Microsoft Azure.

Spin-Up Windows Server Technical Preview on Azure

Keith Mayer has a blog on TechNet where to details how to use a virtual machine image on the Microsoft Azure cloud platform to spin-up your own test lab environment in the cloud in just a couple minutes, a lot faster than you can download the installation bits from the TechNet Evaluation Center or MSDN Subscription Downloads.

An informative read, which you can find here.

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By on October 05th, 2014

A Storage Spaces Survival Guide

Jose Barreto a member of the File Server team at Microsoft has published the Storage Spaces Survival Guide with links to presentations, articles, blogs and tools.

…I’m sharing my favorite links related to Storage Spaces in Windows Server 2012 R2. This includes TechEd Presentations, TechNet articles, Blogs and tools related to Storage Spaces in general and more specifically about its deployment in a Failover Cluster or Scale-Out File Server configuration.

Its full of great links which you can find here.

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By on October 04th, 2014

Log Files in WS2012 Essentials R2

WS 2012 R2 Essentials Logo

Want to know what log files refer to in Windows Server Essentials 2012 and 2012 R2 and also where they reside?

The Windows Server Essentials and Small Business Server Blog have compiled a list of important logs and their associated wizards which are handy for troubleshooting issues on an Essentials server.

You can find the list here.

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By on October 02nd, 2014

Add-In: StableBit Scanner v2.5.1.3062

StableBit Scanner v 2.5.1.3062 Settings

StableBit Scanner is now at version 2.5.1.3062 with the following change log:

  • Added advanced setting Scanner_ScanMaximumConcurrent that allows multiple disks to be scanned at the same time, on the same controller.
  • Exposed .config settings in the UI under Settings -> Advanced Settings -> Configuration Properties.
  • [Issue #9342] Fixed issues with controller performance measuring interacting with disk performance measuring. Controller performance was sometimes not being measured properly and disk performance would be blank after the system woke up from a sleep state.
  • [Issue #9337] Automatically select the "Server" quick settings profile for new WSS installations.
  • [Issue #9337] Allow the standalone UI to run alongside the Dashboard UI.

More details on this release can be found here, and if you are wondering if using StableBit Scanner is a good idea, then read this.

add-ins • Windows Home Server • WS2012e
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