Revision 1 of Windows Home Server will be available shortly with an ETA of 15th – 21st August 2007. Collating information which is currently circulating on the web we expect it to be available at £150-£200 £100 British Pounds including local tax. For those of you across the Atlantic we expect it to be between $200-$300 $150-$200 US Dollars including taxes. Personally I can’t wait.
Well we have two new books for you. The first is by Paul McFedries entitled Teach Yourself VISUALLY Windows Home Server. The 352 page $30 paperback from the Wiley publishers Visual series will be available from February 5 2008.
Book Description:
Technology enthusiasts and home users around the globe are buzzing about the latest product from Microsoft, Windows Home Server. This book features step-by-step instructions and hundreds of full color screenshots to provide readers with robust topic coverage. Succinct explanations walk readers through over 150 Windows Home Server tasks from Windows Home Server basics and configurations to working with WHS settings, restoring data, and making a remote connection to WHS. With all the features included in this inaugural product, even skilled users will need a solid resource like Teach Yourself VISUALLY Windows Home Server to help them get the most out of WHS. This book is aimed at intermediate computer users who are new to Windows Home Server and not particularly comfortable with networking. These are users who want to know what Windows Home Server can do, who want to get the most out of their investment, and who want to know how Windows Home Server can make their computing lives easier, richer, and safer. And they want to learn all this using the simple, visual, step-by-step tasks that this book will provide.
Another $30 paperback ($20 from Amazon) book from publishers Wiley is Windows Home Server: Protect and Simplify your Digital Life. With this book, available from January 22, 2008, Windows and networking expert Rick Hallihan brings the power of Microsoft’s Windows Home Server to everyday PC users. Rick begins by taking the user through the process of selecting a pre-built hardware solution or reusing or building a new machine and setting up the Windows Home Server software package. Next readers will follow step by step tutorials for creating user accounts, installing the connector software, configuring backups, and configuring a shared printer.
The book includes expert guidance that teaches readers to develop a strategy for organizing their digital life, including documents, photos, movies, and music. This strategy is focused on making the best use of the capabilities of Windows Home Server for making the user’s data available and survivable and for getting them onto the server, and organized in a logical and maintainable manner.
Next readers are presented with instruction on how to make use of Windows Home Server’s recovery features, including recovering accidentally deleted files, point-in-time restoration of files, and recovery of a crashed machine. Advanced recovery procedures, including recovering from failed Windows Home Server secondary disks or the Windows Home Server primary disk will be covered as well.
Finally readers will learn the ins and outs of setting up and using Remote Access features, including considerations for security and how to configure a typical home broadband router to allow inbound connections, and as a bonus, Rick presents with some of the ways that third party applications can enhance and extend the capabilities of Windows Home Server including include 3rd party remote backup, home automation, and integration with security systems.
Four more Knowledge Base articles have been published by Microsoft for WHS.
The final RTM version of the SDK (software development kit) documentation for Windows Home Server has finally been updated on the MSDN site. You may read it here http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb425866.aspx.
Just to let you know that I am back from a few days away (Sunshine at last here in the UK!) and have lots of new postings for you which I shall post from tomorrow.
For now
The first Knowledge Base articles for Windows Home Server have appeared on Microsoft. KB articles 939426, 939217, 939427, 939428, 939429 and 939218 all deal with issues relating to setup and backup. Lets have a look at them:
Article 939426 entitled Data may not be migrated or duplicated as expected in Windows Home Server explains why data may not be migrated or duplicated as expected if the Drive Extender feature in WHS is not working correctly. Details on how to start the Defilter.sys file system filter driver or the associated services if they are not started are given as well as advanced log troubleshooting steps.
Next is 939217. You may receive an error message when you try use a device or a program to access the Windows Home Server shared media folder. If you are using the Media Library Sharing feature in Windows Home Server to stream digital media to devices on your home network, an error message can appear if more than 10 devices try to access the shared media folder through Media Library Sharing.
Media Library Sharing in Windows Home Server has a 10-device limit. You may experience a situation in which this limit is exceeded. For example, another user may connect to the network by using a computer that is running Windows Media Player 11. If Windows Media Player has media discovery enabled, this computer may be counted as a device in Windows Home Server. This article explains how to clear the authorized device list in WHS.
Knowledge Base article 939427. Error message when you try to configure backup for a client computer in Windows Home Server: “The backup service is not running, please restart the console”. The “The backup service is not running, please restart the console” error message appears if the backup service has stopped responding. The article explains how to reset the WHS console before you connect to the server.
Next up 939428. Error message when you try to configure backup options for a client computer in Windows Home Server: “Cannot configure backup for this computer”. If error message “Cannot configure backup for this computer” appears when trying to configure backup options for a client computer, then the WHS Connector software is not installed correctly. The article explains how to uninstall and reinstall the Connector software.
Knowledge Base article 939429. Error message when you try to configure backup options for a computer in Windows Home Server: “The computer cannot be contacted”. This article explains why when you try to configure backup options for a computer in WHS, the error “The computer cannot be contacted. Make sure the computer is on and connected to the network and try again” occurs. This happens if the computer running WHS cannot communicate with the client computer and resolution steps are included.
And finally KB article 939218. Error message when you try to open a backup file in Windows Home Server: “Cannot connect to the backup service on the server”. This article explains that when restoring a file the error “Cannot connect to the backup service on the server. Verify that all services are running” can appear at approximately the 3% point. This occurs because a different administrator installed Windows Home Server Connector or the computer is running Microsoft Windows XP.
This problem occurs because Windows Home Server Connector installs a private key on the client computer when Windows Home Server Connector is installed. This action lets WHS authenticate the client computer. This private key is installed by using the default permissions and the default owner. The default owner of this key is not the Administrators group. Instead, the default owner of this key is the administrator who installs Windows Home Server Connector. Therefore, if more than one administrator is configured on the computer, only the administrator who installed Windows Home Server Connector can access the key. By default, no other administrator can access the key. The private key is required to start the restore operation from Windows Home Server. Therefore, only the administrator who installed Windows Home Server Connector can open the backup file.
Detailed resolution steps are explained on how to either manually set permissions on the folder that contains the private key or how to turn off the policy that restricts access to only the administrator who installs Windows Home Server Connector.
Well there we have it, the first six KB articles from Microsoft. Give them a read just in case you need them in the future!
You may change your Windows Home Server network name after setup completes. Log into the Administrator desktop via a Remote Desktop session. Click Start, right click My Computer and click Properties. On the Computer Name tab you can change the machine name by clicking the Change button.
If you change your server’s name after installing the Home Server Connector on your home computers you will have to re-connect them to the server by either re-installing the Home Server Connector software or by running discovery.exe from the %PROGRAMFILES%\Windows Home Server directory on your home computers.
Now that Microsoft’s Windows Home Server Forums have been updated, some users are still experiencing sign in problems. There are two potential issues:
Forums SSL certificate:
An issue with the Forums SSL certificate was preventing some users from signing in. This has been addressed. You do not have to clear cookies to get this fixed but note the following:
· If you are already signed in to Passport, either on Forums on via another site, you should sign out, close/reopen the browser, and sign in on Forums to get the reset.
Cookie issue:
If the above does not clear this up, you may have an old .microsoft.com cookie causing an issue. You’ll need to delete this/these cookies:
In IE:
In Firefox:
ZeRaTuL-A has some Windows Home Server Wallpapers for you. They are available in three sizes (1600×1200, 1280×960, 1024×768) both with and without the WHS Logo in the bottom right hand corner. These should brighten up your Vista or XP desktop.
Well our Poll has finished for Will you buying a ready made WHS (HP etc) or buying just the software? We had a total of 199 votes (WOW!). 172 of you said that you would be buying the software only and the other 27 of you said that you would buy a ready made unit. So from this result we can see that over three quarters of you will be going the DIY route and building your own Windows Home Server. Well done those of you that voted.
We have another one for you now. What we want to know is What will be the main purpose of your WHS? We have the two main options available for you Computer Backups and Server Storage. You will find the Poll half way down in the left pane, so get clicking!
