Those who visit my Web site from time to time will note that the new article there (http://rgharper.mvps.org/) starts the series I promised on Windows Home Server. I'm going to split things up just a bit with the "heavy lifting" stories (installation, updates, configuration, etc) being done on the Web site and the blog site hosting stories about how Windows Home Server can bring convenience, saftey and value to your home network.
It's really a shame (in my most-humble opinion) that this product isn't widely available at retail. As noted on the Web site, the hardware requirements for WHS are very modest, it needs very little processor speed to run well. You'll want a fair amount of memory (2gb would be my recommendation). However, hard drive space is the lifeforce of your WHS system. Since the server will store backups of the computers on your network, plus any documents or files you put on the server, you'll want to have a lot of hard drive space available. Figure on 1TB (one terrabyte, or one thousand gigabytes) as a good start for a small to mid-sized network.
But in any case ... stay tuned as the series plays out both here on the blog and on my Web site.
Oh yeah - before I split here's a couple interesting programs to look at:
Microsoft Equipt is a subscription-based way to get essential software for up to three computers at home. The annual license fee gets you Microsoft OneCare for protection and security, Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007 and Windows Live tools for one low price.
Also, Microsoft continues to offer The Ultimate Steal - qualifying college students can snag Microsoft Office 2007 Ultimate Edition for $59.95 - that's better than 90% off the suggested retail price of the software if bought retail.
Lately I've been getting a fair amount of mail from the talk-back links on both the Web site and my blog. That's not a problem, if it were I wouldn't put links to my email accounts on the Web site or blog. The problem is that most of them are requests for one-on-one technical support in solving problems people are having with their computers.
Unfortunately that's the kind of request I can't possibly honor.
For one thing, I have to earn a living and make the payments on the house my wife and I just bought (a story for another time) and keep my employer happy; not possible if I spend hours a day doing tech support by request.
For another, I have chosen to spend my time in the Microsoft forums helping folks there who need help. That's where you can find me and ask me for assistance.
A third point is when you ask me for help, you're only getting the results of my brainpower to try to solve your problem. By posting in the Microsoft forums, or other forums (below) you get the input and advice of several, if not dozens, of folks who may have an idea that I didn't think of.
Finally, there are not just the Microsoft forums (msnews.microsoft.com for the Usenet crowd, or http://www.microsoft.com/communities/newsgroups/default.mspx for those who prefer an HTML face) but also great places like the AumHa Forums or the Computer Hope web site where you'll find Microsoft MVPs and others who are just itching for a chance to help you out.
I hope everyone can both understand and respect my choice on this. As has always been my policy, email requests for technical support will not be answered in any way.
(Please Note - This post is based on the last widely-available Windows Home Server build available. There may have been non-public pre-release versions released since that may contain changes from the version used here. The final release version may differ from the version reviewed here.)
Now, with that out of the way, let's discuss Windows Home Server in general terms:
The Windows Home Server product page has a wealth of information on the product. Most folks will likely purchase a pre-configured Home Server from one of the partners that will be making them. The minimum hardware standards (pirated from the FAQ at the Windows Home Server support forums) are:
CPU: 1GHz Pentium 3 or better
RAM: 512MB minimum
Hard Drive:1 Hard Drive 80GB internal (IDE, ATA, SATA, or SCSI)
Bootable DVD-ROM Drive
Monitor, QWERTY Keyboard and mouse/pointing device (only needed for installation and setup)
Network Interface Card (NIC) 100Mbps Ethernet
Motherboard must be ACPI compliant
Must have Windows Server 2003 driver support.
What would I recommend? Well, the processor speed won't matter that much; where you do want to invest your money is in a little more memory, lots of hard drive space, and if possible, faster network speed. Since every computer in your home will be accessing the Home Server, you want it to have a ton of disk space and at least a 100mbps Ethernet connection, if possible a Gigabit Ethernet connection would be good.
The client PCs - the ones you already own - don't need to be upgraded to use Home Server. They'll just need you to load the connector software on them so that they can see and interact with the server. These PCs can be wired or wirelessly connected to your network. Currently only 32-bit clients (Windows XP and Vista) are supported, the folks at Microsoft are working on 64-bit Windows support.
Currently Microsoft is saying that the software will not be available for retail purchase - only as part of a hardware purchase. In other words, you buy the server hardware and software all at once. Though that makes it easy to set up, I'm a little disappointed that you won't be able to buy the software only. Any older PC sitting around the house could be converted, fairly cheaply, into a Home Server. Maybe they'll see the light later. I hope.
Setting Up The Home Server
For now, since we don't have a reliable prospect of having the software available as a retail product, I'll skip the install process. It's pretty boring anyway. Answer a few questions, then go away as the software installs and reboots itself several times over the next hour or two. The only thing you need to take careful note of (if you're considering running a beta or CTP version) is that as part of the install process, all hard drives attached to the system will be wiped and all data on them lost. There are three different warnings about this during the setup process but it's still something to keep in mind.
For the initial set-up of the home server, you will need a keyboard, a mouse and a monitor attached to the system. These are only needed to set the sysem up initially. Once that's done the server is connected only to the network and the keyboard, mouse and monitor can go away. The initial set-up consists of some housekeeping items - putting a password on the Administrator account, setting up automatic updates and error reporting, and so on. In less than five minutes your server is ready to roll.
Next Step - Attach Home PCs
The next thing you'll want to do is put the Connector CD into each computer you want to be able to access the Home Server. The Connector CD enables the computers on your network to take advantage of the services that the Home Server offers:
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Backup and Restore - Windows Home Server and the Connector software will automatically back up all home PCs overnight (or at whatever time you designate) so that individual files or the entire system can be easily and quickly restored
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Shared Files and Folders - Windows Home Server has a number of folders that are pre-configured as shared and are available to users on your network. Access can be generic (available to all) or controlled by user name
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Media Server - Windows Home Server can serve as a Windows Media Connect server not only to the PCs on your network but to any Media Center compatible device
- System Health Monitoring - Monitors all PCs on the network for security and safety risks
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Home Server Console - The "door" that you access the Home Server control console from
Let's take a look at each of these features in a bit more detail:
Backup and Restore
Each PC on your network can be backed up each night automatically, or at any time you specify. You can use these backups to restore individual files, or even to recover the entire system from a complete crash. There is a special bootable CD that will allow your PC to access the Windows Home Server and if necessary, restore the entire computer from a complete failure. This type of restore, known as a "bare metal restore", until now hasn't been available for most home users.
Shared Files and Folders
All shared files and folders can be put on the Home Server so that they can be accessed from anywhere on your network. Control over shared folders is controlled from the Home Server console, making configuration and control easy and centralized. You can set up certain folders to be available only to some users, only to yourself, or to all users. If there is enough disk space available on the Home Server, it automatically backs up its central file stores, so your documents and media files and pictures will be safe and sound. Each connected user also gets one "personal" folder that they can use to store files that can be shared on the network or available to only that user.
Media Server
(Strictly speaking you don't need the Connector CD for this feature, though you do need the Server Console to configure it) You can configure the Home Server to act as a Media Connect server, making pictures and media files available to any Media Center software or devices on your network. Media Center extenders and other computers can access your pictures and media files from the Home Server exactly as if it were a Media Center or Media Server device.
System Health Monitoring
This feature allows the Home Server to keep track of all the things that keep your computers safe on the network. It checks backup frequency and alerts you if a PC has missed backups. It checks your computers and alerts you if they are need updates. It can check any antivirus or firewall software that integrates with the Security Center and alert you if the configuration changes to a dangerous state (for example, if a virus shuts off your antivirus or a backdoor Trojan turns off your firewall). And, of course, the server monitors its own health status and alerts you if it needs any attention. These alerts happen by way of a tray icon in the System Tray which provides both a visual (by color) or text (message) alert.
Home Server Console
The Windows Home Server console runs on any attached PC and lets you safely handle the configuration and maintenance tasks that your Home Server needs to stay happy and healthy. Here is where you set up controls on shared folders, monitor disk usage, configure options, and so on. Most options won't need to be changed from the defaults as this is a very user-friendly, out-of-the-box ready system.
Anything Else?
Well, for starters, the Home Server can be configured to allow Internet access through Windows Live Internet. This lets you both download and upload files to your Home Server no matter where you are.
Need more disk space? Just drop in a new drive and Windows Server will (with your permission) add it to the drive pool and allocate its space with no further intervention from you - all automatically.
There are other features but I've hit on the ones that I've found to be the most useful. All my media files are on the Home Server so they can be accessed across the network. I've actually had to do a full "bare-metal" restore of my laptop after a hard drive failure and it worked flawlessly - everything was back to the way it was before the crash. My wife uses the Home Server to keep her digital pictures safe - no more shuffling them on and off CDROM discs or flash drives. There will be one of these in my household when they're released - believe me!
I really have to apologize for not keeping things up here in a while but I've had some rather significant lifestyle challenges of late. I'm not going to go into details but let's just say that I don't take my health quite as "for-granted" as I used to ...
So, what's news? Well, how about this shocker from Nick White that indicates that folks in the Customer Preview Program for Vista will be eligible for upgrade copies of Vista rather than having to purchase full copies! There was a bit of dissatisfaction from the CPP community that they were not eligible for a free copy of Vista as some of the folks in the formal beta program were. Folks in the CPP were also told there would be no upgrade path from pre-release copies to the final code. But Nick has a chart that shows what upgrade paths are available based on what version(s) and release(s) you were running. Early tests show that this information is correct - beta and RC copies of Vista can be upgraded as shown in the chart in Nick's blog post. This is a pretty nice "Thank-You!" to all the folks who participated in the CPP program.
In other news, Microsoft has two big projects with new beta releases recently - Windows Home Server and Windows Server Codename "Longhorn".
Longhorn is up to Beta 3 and is available for download. I've been playing with it on my laptop this weekend (dual-core, 2gb RAM, 160gb SATA HDD) and it's been smooth and largely trouble-free. And, of course, if you turn on a few services and load some optional components, you can make it look just like Vista. Yeah, you'll be seeing that in my server room at work in the near future, I'll tell you that. Anyway, in the recommended configuration it's fast, stable and fairly impressive with lots of wizards for folks who need them and plenty of power for those who don't.
Windows Home Server is up to Beta 2 right now and is also available for download. I've been playing with the Windows Home Server software for a while now and expect to have a write-up with my thoughts in the very near future. I really think that the Home Server product is going to change the way people think about home networking. Anyone in a business environment already knows that networks are great for central storage of shared data and enable a lot of backup/restore flexibility. Now home users will have the same abilities and power available to them in an easy to manage package.
Back soon, with some details and thoughts on Windows Home Server!
Okay, so I did it. I took one for the team. I decided to go ahead and run a test on the Windows Family Discount Package so I could see what it is, what it does, and maybe help you discover whether or not it's the right package for you.
Quick Answers to FAQs:
To start, you must have a retail purchased copy of Windows Vista Ultimate - Upgrade or Full.
The Family Discount keys that you purchase are Windows Vista Home Premium Upgrade keys. No clean installs, sorry.
You get only a key, delivered electronically. No new media - use your existing Ultimate CD to install.
Each key is good for only one computer - a second computer needs a second key.
If you're not sure which version is right for you, check this quick comparison chart to take a high-level look at the differences between Vista Ultimate Edition and Windows Home Premium Edition. For most folks - I'd say 99.9% or more - the Home Premium edition is going to do everything they need to do.
How I Tested:
I purchased a retail copy of Vista Ultimate Edition, installed it on my wife's laptop (my wife got the first copy because my mother raised ugly children, not stupid ones! ) activated it, then went to the Family Discount Package web site. From there, you enter your Ultimate product key to validate your eligibility for the offer. Once you've been validated you can order one product key now and one later or two at once. I ordered one key and it was given to me both immediately in Internet Explorer and emailed to me for safe-keeping.
Now at this point I had to cheat just a little ... my personal laptop was configured for my work environment (Windows XP MCE 2005, hacked to join a business domain) and I wasn't convinced that this would be a fair test of the Family Discount upgrade offer. So, I did a full restore from the original HP DVDs that shipped with my laptop, uninstalled a bunch of the stuff I didn't want, reinstalled and configured my essential applications (like Microsoft Office), then finally headed off to Windows Updates for several update sessions. By the time I was done I had a fairly clean, but fully configured and updated, Windows 2005 Media Center computer with enough software installed that I could easily see what survived the upgrade and what did not.
I fired up the upgrade CD from within Windows XP, and in just a few minutes the familiar installation sequence started. I won't bore you with screenshots or blow-by-blow descriptions on this because too many Web sites have already done it.
You should expect the upgrade to take a while to complete. This is because the upgrade runs the Easy Transfer system to save current settings and program customizations, installs your copy of Vista, then when the install is done it restores your settings and customizations again. On this laptop, a clean install runs about 30 to 45 minutes total, the upgrade install took about 75 minutes to install.
We're Done! Now What?
Well, the first thing I noticed was that the custom theme that HP shipped with the laptop was still the default theme ... for the most part, anyway. The Start Menu was the new Vista variety, and many other appearance items were Vista items, but some were from the HP theme. Then I realized ... the upgrade kept all the items that HP customized in the "Custom Windows XP Theme", and replaced with the new Vista items any that HP did not specifically customize. That's some pretty smart software there, eh?
Next, I got my antivirus reinstalled and updated, then hit Windows Updates for the latest updates. There were a number of updated device drivers for my laptop so I grabbed them all and got them installed. No problems there, and it looks like HP and Microsoft are doing a pretty good job of getting those updated drivers out there.
With the laptop fully provisioned and ready to go it was time to start testing applications. As I expected, this was a pretty smooth process. Office was still working and all my customizations there were fully preserved. Existing media on the laptop worked just fine after the upgrade - movies played, music worked, subscription music service ready and willing to serve up my current playlists - in fact, I haven't found anything broken yet.
Who Wins? Who Loses?
Personally, I think this is probably one of the best discount programs that Microsoft has ever come up with. There's nothing peculiar or special to the Family Discount package that you would not encounter if you purchased a retail Vista Home Premium Upgrade package and installed it. In my experience the upgrade was perfect, all my settings and software carried over correctly, and everything worked when I was done. Hey, that sounds like a deal to me!
You should strongly consider using the Family Discount package if:
- You already have (or are going to buy) a retail copy of Vista Ultimate Edition - either Upgrade or Full
- The lack of exclusive Ultimate items like "Ultimate Extras", enhanced backup, etc. doesn't concern you
- You want to upgrade up to two computers, really REALLY inexpensively!
- No one is going to get their nose out of joint because "YOU got Ultimate and I only got ..."
You probably won't want (or not be able) to use the Family Discount package if:
- Your copy of Vista Ultimate Edition is an upgrade from your PC manufacturer
- You and/or your family want the Ultimate Extras, enhancements, and so on
- Your other hardware may not be Vista ready