The Home Server Show Podcast #50

The Home Server Show Podcast

The latest episode of The Home Server Show podcast is all about Power Pack 3 as well as the latest Home Server news and views.

Show #50 is available from here.

Media Center with PP3 Start Strip Modifier

The Home Server Show website is reporting on a tool that enables you to modify the start strips in Windows Media Center.

mce2 mediasmartmcetoolbar

By using the tiny app you can change the "Home Server" strip to whatever you like including "MediaSmart Server" etc with icons for both the TV Archive and Console View on the main page too.

More details here.

MiscUtils – The Undocumented WHS API

ASoft the developers of the add-in AutoExit for Windows Home Server have just published a new article in the series of undocumented APIs, and this one concentrates on the functions in the MiscUtils class which is located in HomeServerControls.dll.

The 8 page article in PDF format can be found here.

PP3 Icon Text Change

If you fancy having a tinkle with the Beta of Power Pack 3 (at your own risk!), then The Home Server Show website has a post especially for you.

The post details how to change the text in the PP3 icons from one font to another by using a registry hack.

tvarchive From this

 tvarchive2  To this

Read it here.

Windows Live Mesh on WHS

Website Spackle have an article on how to install Windows Live Mesh on Windows Home Server. The guide details how to set Live Mesh up and what to do if the setup fails. Once complete Live Mesh should start synchronizing your WHS folders.

All the details are available here.

MediaSmart Server – A serious alternative to NAS

Allen Buckner

MediaSmart Home has another written interview with HPs Allen Buckner, Marketing Manager for the Home Server Group about the new LX195 and also HPs positioning of the MediaSmart Server in the marketplace as a serious alternative to traditional NAS products.

Read it here.

Windows Home Server Shortcut Maker

Jesseweb.com has a great article on how to add a Windows Home Server shortcut to My Computer which also includes the following right-click options

  • Browse the home server shares
  • Access the home server console
  • Remotely computer manage the home server
  • Remote desktop to the home server

AspireHomeMyComputerLink_ContextMenu 

And despite the official name of the app being called the “AspireHome My Computer Link Application” it will work on non Aspire systems by installing the supplied manual package – Great stuff.

All the details are here.

Power Pack 3 Beta Advice

For those of you thinking of trying the beta of Power Pack 3, we have 3 bits of advise for you before you fire it up.

  1. Read the “things to know…” article by Andrew Edney on the site Using Windows Home Server
  2. Read again the documentation that comes with the beta package (what do you mean you haven’t already!)
  3. And finally, if you become stuck along the way ask your questions in the new Power Pack 3 Beta forum over at the official Microsoft WHS forums.

Following this advice should help you along your way in installing configuring and running the PP3 beta.

WHS Media Center Add-In Videos

If you would like to see more of Power Pack 3 in action, then 2 videos are available which go through the Windows Media Center add-in in more detail. The first is from Ian Dixon from The Media Center Show and the second from Adam Thursby of The Digital Media Zone.

A Gigabyte to Terabyte to a Petabyte

Online backup providers Mozy ask the question "How Much Is A Petabyte?"

Luckily for us they came up with the following image, with a series of stats visualizing the Petabyte age.

whatsapetabyte

13.3 years of HD-TV video! Wow, I need a new hard drive.

Thanks to Mozy for the original post.