James Moody: Geek in Paradise

The Windows Home Server Team announced today that their baby, Windows Home Server, was RTM’d to it’s OEM partners today. WHS has gotten a lot of positive reviews from it’s testers since it was first made available. WHS also made it out the door on time and on budget. Great job!

We have finalized the software and now handing it off to our OEM partners. The evaluation version (with 120 day evaluation period) and the system builder version are also heading into the distribution channels and will be available in the next couple of months. French, German and Spanish versions will be finalized shortly, and OEM products will hit retail shelves this fall.

Windows Home Server has generated quite a bit of buzz through the testing community allowed to test-drive it. The team is looking forward to what 3rd party developers will be able to integrate into WHS through the use of Add-Ins. They really look to be enthusiastic about how extensible WHS is and what features can be added in to the experience.

WHS has 6 OEM’s in tow at this point in time, working on making products using and geared towards WHS. They include Fujitsu-Siemens, Gateway, HP, Iomega, Lacie and Medion.

Keep an eye out for the evaluation version of WHS coming to a download center near you to have the chance to run WHS through it’s paces before buying or building your own Home Server.

Tags: Microsoft Windows Home Server RTM OEM

At the WinHEC 2007 conference today, Windows Server “Longhorn” received its official name of Windows Server 2008 and got its very own website in the process. The only surprise being the “2008″ instead of “2007″. The new Server OS will release in 2007, but the official launch will be in 2008, hence the change. Make sure you check out the video of the naming process while you’re there.

Bill Gates also informed the attendees of the conference that Windows Home Server will be available to System Builders so they can build their own solutions based on the OS that is gaining a lot of traction very fast. Hardware vendors such as Lacie, Gateway and Medion also announced their foray into the WHS product arena. Software vendors Lagotek, Riptopia, Sage TV, Diskeeper, Embedded Automation and F-Secure announced solutions geared towards WHS as well. WHS is shaping up to add to Microsoft’s forward momentum in the server market, and provide a substantial boost to Microsoft’s profits for the next fiscal year, which will include Windows Server 2008 as well. Just looking at the vendors above, you can garner that WHS isn’t going to be your average ’server’ by any stretch of the imagination.

You can read more on the WHS announcements at the Windows Home Server Blog.

You can read more on the Windows Server 2008 announcements at the Windows Server Division Blog.

There were, of course, other announcements such as Windows Rally (Connectivity solution), so check out the WinHEC site for links to more announcements from day 1 of the conference.

Today, the WHS Blog released a new build of Windows Home Server for current Beta Testers. The Beta is still invite only, so if you want to test the latest build and aren’t in the Beta program yet, you can register at the Microsoft WHS Connect page.

Changes include:

CTP provides a wide range of code fixes, user interface improvements and feature enhancements, such as:

• A more complete and simplified “out of box” experience, including an easy, 7-step setup process after installation, personalized home server naming, and the ability to configure a standalone Windows Home Server from an existing home computer.

• You can now set up and configure Remote Access capabilities from the Windows Home Server Console, including selection of a personalized web address from the Windows Live Custom Domains service.

• You can enable or disable home network health notifications and can dictate where and when various notifications are displayed on their computers. 

• Users can clearly define their password settings, and designate a password hint to assist in recovering a forgotten Windows Home Server password.

• And you can now add and remove Windows Home Server Add-in programs developed with the Windows Home Server Software Development Kit.

I haven’t had the time yet to install and work with WHS, but in the process of downloading the new build and installing it shortly after. Reviews of testers have been very positive overall, so it will be interesting how the new build improves the experience.