Windows Home Server Review

More and more people are becoming computer geeks like us. They know how to use a computer and are relying on it for day-to-day life. These users have two things in common: they know the importance of backing up and they probably have a computer sitting in the closest collecting dust. More people might want to dip into having a mini-server in their house or host their own website.

Until recently there was only two ways to go about this. One was to use Linux, but that was too complicated for the average user. The other was to buy an expensive copy of Windows Server. None of these options were very good.

Microsoft saw this growing market and made a home version of the traditional Server OS. It’s called Windows Home Server. There were some serious issues with it before, so I have put off taking a look at it until now. Guess what? The bugs are fixed and Windows Home Server is ready for all your server needs.

Requirements

I thought I would go over the system requirements quickly so you can see if that old dusty computer is worth the effort of hauling out of your closet to receive an installation of the software. You need to have at least a 1.0 GHz Pentium 3 processor, 512 MB RAM, and an 80 GB hard drive; that last is an absolute must. If you are interested in trying out Windows Home Server without paying for the operating system right away, Microsoft is giving away 120-day trials.

If you old PC doesn’t have the power to run the OS, but you still want to have a Home Server, OEM manufacturers do offer some systems that are meant for the Home Server OS. These aren’t old PCs, but mini servers that offer some nice space for storing data. The most popular versions are from HP. They offer a computer that has hot swappable bays for hard drives; you can plug in and unplug hard drives at will if you chose.

Power Pack 1

I’ve seen plenty of Service Parks, but never a Power Pack. Microsoft decided to give the update to Home Server a different name, but both do the same thing -- add features and fix bugs. The big issue which really killed this product until now was the file corruption bug. This has been fixed, and a few other needs and options have been added. I will be reviewing Home Server with the Power Pack included.

Installing

I have an old HP small form factor PC I bought off eBay. It has a Pentium 4 2.8 CPU with Hyperthreading, a 200 GB hard drive, 1 GB RAM, and a DVD-ROM. The great thing about Home Server is that it can be run remotely after install. So all you need beside the computer is a network cord and a power cord, and that’s it.

The installation works like your typical Windows install. The boot CD loading screen is the new Vista one, while the OS is based on the Server kernel. Once installed, it will boot up with the same Windows Server 2003 boot screen that is found on the real Server OS; I mention this in part because I think some people might become confused and think they installed the wrong OS somehow. All of the updates, except the Power Pack, are named for Server 2003.

Setting up your home server to be part of the network involves more than just the server itself. To get the backups working, you need to install some client side software. You get three CDs with Home Server: the Home Server Install DVD, a CD to install the files for the client computer, and a bootable CD to transfer the backup image of the computer to your hard drive. It’s truly the full package; everything is self-contained, which means you don't need to do much work after you set it up.

Since this is a home server, it isn’t meant to work in big environments. For this reason, Microsoft limits Home Server to 10 clients. This limitation shouldn’t be a problem for most users.

Backing Up

It's time to test the backup skills of Windows Home Server. Home Server goes beyond just copying file for file every time it backs up. This would eat up disk space like the Cookie Monster eats cookies. It starts by using shadow copying, meaning that after the initial back up, it only copies files that have been created or changed since the last back up.

This saves a lot of space all by itself, but there is more space saving technology built into Home Server. It has something Microsoft calls Single Instance Store. No matter who uses a computer, there are files that are the same. Files such as the typical Windows install will feature the same files for the same OS. There isn’t any need to keep four or five copies of these files. Single Instance Store stores one copy of the file and then points other back ups to it. This should save at least 3 GB per computer after the first.

The back up feature is only supported by Windows XP SP2 and Windows Vista. I don’t see a huge problem with this. I don’t think too many people with computers running older operating systems than this are too worried about backing up their data on a home server.

Sixty-four-bit wasn’t support by the original release of Home Server, but it did get some 64-bit support with Power Pack 1. It opened up 64-bit Vista, but didn’t include support for 64-bit XP. With XP 64-bit not being as well used, and the fact XP is dying off, I don’t think you will see this support in upcoming updates.

Setting up

I have used Windows Server 2003, and it was kind of hard to set up everything. It didn’t seem like anything could be set up easily; it required quite a few clicks to do anything.

Home Server doesn’t seem anything like that. It seems like anything can be set up with just a few clicks. Take, for example, setting up different users with different permissions. Previously this required you to set up the user, and then add them to the correct groups. The Home Server Console does all this for you in one step.

I had some trouble setting up media sharing with Server 2003. Windows Home Server made it simple; it even gave you a URL address, xxxx.homeserver.com. I managed to set up the computer backups, add users, and share the media online in a matter of hours. I was really surprised by how easy everything was to set up and configure.

Here is a helpful hint. If you are setting up a remote connection through the website, make sure you are using Internet Explorer. I tried using Firefox and it isn’t supported. You can log on and share folders, but the whole tab covering remote connections is gone. There are no warnings or messages about this; it simply doesn’t work.

You may think that because it seems so simple now that Microsoft removed a great deal of stuff, but that’s not the case. Most of the features are still there; they simply aren’t highlighted in the OS as the ones used for the Home Server Console. When you log on, you get a nice message telling you that messing around with the advanced features could mess up your server.

Add-Ins

Microsoft set up something called Add-ins. They are basically programs made for the Home Server Console. It just makes programs easier to manage and able to be viewed in the Home Server Console. There are a few really neat ones that I have installed.

Future for Home Server?

Microsoft recently posted a job opening for a programmer to join the Home Server Team. The description hinted at a Time Machine type of backup system with a great GUI. They also mentioned a closer integration for Media Center and Windows Home Server. This would improve Home Server by a couple of notches in my book. It’s something missing, and I can feel the lack. Imagine running the cable TV through your home server and streaming it to the TVs from there. You could keep all of your media in one location and use only the Media Center extenders on each TV.

Conclusion

It is easy to dig into this OS and think that it will be like XP, but it’s not. What it really is is a server OS, and it runs like one. Most people would dig into a server OS and get completely lost, and end up not doing much with it since it isn’t easy to use.

Microsoft put two and two together and made a server OS meant for the common user. As far as ease of use and functionality, it is pretty good. It has to be one of the easiest operating systems to configure. I never ran into any problems setting everything up. I would rate this OS very high for what it is. As a first generation OS, it is very good.

There are areas that the next version should hit. First. Microsoft needs to remove the corporate aspects of this OS. There are way too many options for non-business environments, and people could screw up the computer with them. Why even let the user have the ability to make the mistakes?

The final aspect is Media Center integration. As part of Bill Gate’s dream of a digital home, this product was made for Media Center integration. Imagine recording a TV show, throwing it onto the server, and then having it encoded and stored automatically. Fro the next step, we might even see TV tuners integrated into the Home Server, and then have extenders at each TV.

Overall, Microsoft Home Server is a great OS. It serves its purpose well. I would recommend that you consider getting at least the free trial to throw onto an old PC, so you can see if it suits your needs.