Microsoft Windows Home Server OEM Reviews

• The Connected Home Is Now A Reality

  
  By A3MLKJ1HHA2SX0 on 2007-10-23
  Chances are in your house you have several computers, maybe a laptop or two and a desktop in the den or the your kids room. All these machines serve different functions -- one is for your business, one might be for storing digital pictures and the kids may use theirs for playing games. They are all different and even though they reside under the same roof it is next to impossible to share files with them all and when it comes to backup -- well, just ask yourself this, when is the last time you backed any of them up? You are a digital home but a connected home you are not.
  
  Enter Microsoft's newest product, Windows Home Server. A revolutionary product that offers consumers centralized storage and backups in their households with a product that you plug in and literally let it run without any intervention on your part.
  
  Windows Home Server makes the concept of a connected home a reality in a simple, easy to use package that will bring your entire digital family together in one place. Imagine never having to worry about backups again because they are taken automatically, every night, while you sleep. Think of how easy it would be to share digital pictures, movies and files with your family without having to e-mail them or put them on USB fobs that always seem to get lost. What if you could check to make sure your kids have their anti-virus protection running without having to check their computer manually? How about never having to worry about your precious family photos, home videos and important documents getting lost because of a computer crash thanks to data redundancy?
  
  If these sound like your idea of a dream, then dream no more. All these features and more await you in Windows Home Server.
  
  The idea is simple. Put a machine (doesn't have to be too powerful) in an out of the way location in the house. It doesn't need a keyboard or a mouse, just hard drives. But wait, even the hard drives don't have to be all the same or fit inside the box. You can hook up any combination of hard disks you want -- from internal to external USB and firewire drives. Windows Home Server manages them for you, creating one big pool of disk space that is duplicated across the drives -- so if one fails, you don't lose one byte of data!
  
  Backups are a breeze as well; every night Windows Home Server backups up files from all the connected PC's and stores them on the server. However, it doesn't just back up files -- it intelligently decides which files are different, and which aren't and doesn't backup duplicates. So if everyone in your house has Microsoft Word installed, it won't create 5 backup copies of it. Just one copy which all 5 computers can restore from!
  
  Traveling and need access to your Powerpoint presentation or important document? Fire up a web browser and securely access any file stored on the server! Better yet, remote connect to any computer in your household running Windows Vista or XP and use it as if you were sitting right in front of it. All from a secure web browser!
  
  One more thing for all you XBOX 360 owners out there, or those of you who have digital picture frames that are network-aware -- Windows Home Server has the ability to stream content to your XBOX 360 and to your digital picture frames! Functionality "out of the box", which will no doubt be extended further as third party applications start to appear thanks to the Windows Home Server Software Development Kit (SDK) that Microsoft has released for WHS.
  
  In Windows Home Server Microsoft has created a product (based off of Windows 2003 Server) that any household can use and enjoy without having to worrying about "IT Support". The product just simply works, and needs almost zero maintenance. Watch for vendors such as HP to come out with pre-configured "appliances" this fall such as the HP EX475 MediaSmart Home Server (AMD Live/ 64 Bit Sempron Processor, 1 TB Hard Drive) or use spare hardware you already have in your house to "roll your own" by purchasing this OEM software kit. Either way, your home will change forever and become not just a digital home, but a connected home where everyone can share data and have a safe, enjoyable experience using their machines.
  
  

• Great product. Minimal hassles.

  
  By A3IK6WKHIFJY9T on 2007-11-14
  What I did: got an OEM copy of the software (it's like XP Media Center - MS doesn't want to sell these without hardware) and bought a PC off of UBID - a refurbished unit with the specs to handle this OS. Because the experience is designed to be hassle-free out of the box, MS isn't encouraging do-it-yourselfers to get the product at retail. And yet, I wanted my own machine to save money and to play with the install to see how it went.
  
  In a word, (almost) flawless. I got the ubid pc with windows home basic on it, and popped in the WHS DVD. It installed with minimal input from me, and booted right up.
  
  There was one error message, because I was using a do-it-yourself machine, I needed to install the network drivers for my particular box. The error message and troubleshooting guide led me directly to the problem. Because this is Windows at its core, I went to the internet and downloaded an old XP driver for my network card, and it installed without a problem. I was a little bit worried that there would be a compatibility issue, but it has worked flawlessly since I installed the net driver.
  
  Bottom line: this unit is great. It works completely as advertised, and I'm anxious to set this box up as an iTunes server, a media server for WMAs, a repository for recorded media center TV shows, and because this is a windows box at its core, it won't be long before someone ports a torrent client over to this box and has it trickling content 24-7.
  
  The machine I used has 512k, a 1.7 amd chip, and a couple of hard drives. Any old tower case will have enough drive bays for expansion, and this one has plenty. I can fit 4 or 5 more drives in there as I need them, and the whole hardware setup cost about $340 for 650 gig of redundant storage.
  
  Great work, Microsoft. Now get out there and tell people about this product.
  
  
  
  

• Awesome product!!!!!

  
  By A2XOG6VKVMEAXV on 2007-10-24
  After installing Windows Home Server on an old PC and adding four 500GB drives for $400, I effectively have a full featured NAS* file server with the added benefit of it being my home based webserver running the Windows 2003 IIS. If you have an old PC, why spend hundreds more to buy one of the NAS* disk devices with practically no features other than serving up files. WHS also provides a good backup system too that lets you backup your home PCs with little management effort.
  
  * Note: I mistakenly wrote SAN instead of NAS in the first version of this review as pointed out in the comments to this review. I hope all can rest easier now that this has been fixed :-)
  
  

• Unbelievable from the Worlds Largest Software Company

  
  By A2KKHJ1IAU24RV on 2008-04-09
  I installed this are on brand new Dell PowerEdge T105 with 2 drives. Followed all the instructions. Loaded all the required Dell drivers. The Home Server came up and seemed to work great. Then after a couple of backups I started getting corrupted files on the Home Server. When viewing the backups it would hang the client computer with all the corrupted file pop-ups. These are corrupted files on the Home Server.
  Contacted MS support (a vender does the support). Sent in the logs. They told me to delete all the back ups and try again.
  After doing that I still get corrupted files on the backups randomly. How can I rely on this?
  Turns out corrupted files is a know issue (KB#946676) with NO FIX on the horizon because they said it happens so RARELY! And the programs that are referenced in KB#946676 as causing corrupted files? I was not using any of them. Just the automatic backup.
  Avoid Windows Home Server at all costs. I wish there was something out there for Windows as cool as Apple's Time Machine.
  
  

• So Simple, Yet So Powerful

  
  By A2XMT7F5S5EXHL on 2007-10-28
  I have been running Windows Home Server since the Beta went live, and it makes my home storage and backup issues simple and elegant. Between my wife and daughters PC, I know have a way for them all to share files easily and keep backups of their PC's in case of problems. It's rare that a new software OS product doesn't require a large investment in hardware, but I think MS finally took it into account that not everyone wants to drop a few grand on new innovations.
  
  

• Microsoft Windows Home Server Unleashed
• Windows Home Server For Dummies (For Dummies (Computer/Tech))
• Windows Home Server Bible
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