Windows Home Server Add-Ins Starting to Appear

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://arstechnica.com/journals/microsoft.ars/2007/07/20/alist-of-windows-home-server-add-ins' target='_blank'>http://arstechnica.com/journals/microsoft.ars/2007/07/20/alist-of-windows-home-server-add-ins</a><br /><br /></div><i>"I don't know how many of you plan to jump on Windows Home Server when it is released, but anyone who decides to give the system a spin will probably want to customize it to their liking. Microsoft understands that one of Windows Home Server's major selling points is the ability to handle add-ins, and the company is currently hosting a contest to see who can develop the most "useful, cool, easy-to-use, and solidly performing value-add to Windows Home Server." While the competition doesn't end until August 25, 2007, many developers have already created nifty utilities for the server, but how can you find them?"</i><br /><br />The list of Windows Home Server add-ins is growing, and there are some cool ones so far that will do things such as upload a photo folder to Flickr automatically, manage and add torrents, allow your Tivo to access all the media on the server, and other cool add-ins. Having just installed the RTM version of Windows Home Server myself, I'm really looking forward to expanding the functionality with added software.

[humayunl]

I'm glad you brought this topic up Jason as I've been thinking about this lately.

I've been wondering how WHS and MCE are supposed to work/behave together.

I have MCE (Vista Untimate) at home and WHS is looking interesting... but i am unclear (even after doing some basic research) on how these both are supposed to co-exist.

Do they provide redundant features?
Are they supposed to work together?
Can or should they be installed on the same machine?
What is the ideal setup if one plans to have both these products?

Basic stuff like that.. if anyone can provide clarity, it would be great. I might just download RC1 (RTM is unavailable) and give it a spin.

Thanks.

[Felix Torres]

Mr Dunn can feed you a lot more detail, but basically, Home server is meant to provide infrastructure support for a home network, whereas MC PCs are specialized application boxes. Home Servers are essentially programable peripherals that glue your regular desktop, laptop, and/or MCE boxes into a cohesive whole.
They provide, first and foremost, automatic data backup using a "pull" mechanism managed from the server. Typically, a Home Server box will look a lot like a SAN but be a lot more flexible because of its Windows Server under-pinings (its not built off desktop Windows) and the plug-in architecture.
Now, the thing is, Home Server boxes support file serving using a variety of protocols (SMB for one) including UPnP. Which means it can serve media files to XBOXes and other streaming clients. So, in some conditions, it could substitute for MCE boxes. Further down the road, it might provide Tuner and DVR support (providing a server MCE box) but that's not in this version. The current version is mostly about data although it can serve printer services.

A lot is going to depend on what plug-ins and client apps MS delivers to extend the product. One thing they *will* offer is automatic online storage so the Home Server box can automatically back up at least some of your data offsite (for a fee, of course). There have been hints (but no announcements) that maybe at some point Home Server will support XBOXes not just as media clients; that you might be able to backup 360 data on the Home Server and maybe even move data off the 360 drives to Home Server storage. This would be great but I wouldn't hold my breath; I doubt that a home server client is part of the promised October Dashboard upgrade for 360.

If you follow the links at Ars Technica you'll end up here:
http://www.wegotserved.co.uk/
Where they have a fair amount of useful info.

There is also:
http://www.winsupersite.com/reviews/whs_preview2.asp

And, of course, MS has their own support site:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/windowshomeserver/default.mspx

Its a very intriguing product that establishes a new PC category, much like MCE and TabletPC did. As such it is a starting point rather than the final product.