Microsoft Unveils Windows Home Server

Published: January 10, 2007

by Alex Woodie

In his keynote at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates revealed plans to build Windows Home Server, a new version of Windows designed to make it easier for people to collect, store, and share their photographs, songs, and other electronic content. At first glance, it looks like a great idea. The big question is: Can Microsoft make it work?

Like their business counterparts, consumers have greatly benefited from the advances in computer technology over the last 20 years. The rise of digital media and the corresponding drop in the cost of technology has enabled millions of people to indulge various digital doodads, including cameras, music players, digital video recorders (DVRs), 64-bit video game consoles, high definition TVs and DVD players, and powerful laptops that connect to the Internet via 802.11x connections that have sprung up like mushrooms.

Unfortunately, it may be a case of "too much of a good thing." Home users are discovering what their X86 server-using counterparts in business found out years ago: While the upfront cost to obtain all this stuff is relatively tame, the real cost lies in the effort required to string it all together and keep it running smoothly.

And in many cases, you simply can't string it together, which results in the creation of multiple and incompatible silos of data (sound familiar?) With new capabilities like IP-based TV (IPTV) coming down the pike, the situation seems bound to get worse before it gets better.

Just as business IT leaders have struggled to solve the problem of X86 server sprawl, the home technology user is now struggling to deal with tech gadget sprawl. Microsoft, as master of the X86 universe, is now setting out to solve this problem. It's solution: the Windows Home Server, which will be available preloaded on the Hewlett-Packard MediaSmart Server during the second half of the year.

Pricing for the MediaSmart Server hasn't been finalized yet, but it should be near the bottom-end of the current PC spectrum, or around $500, says Joel Sider, senior product manager for Windows Home Server. Other OEMs demonstrating Windows Home Server setups at CES include Inventec and Quanta Computer.

Windows Home Server

Windows Home Server is based on the restricted-use version of Windows Server 2003 and will act as a storage and integration hub, mainly for other Windows Vista and XP PCs, but also for music players, gaming consoles, and DVRs--as long as they support the Windows Media Connect standard (more on this later).

The primary benefit of Windows Home Server is centralized backup and recovery. Once other PCs and devices are hooked up, Windows Home Server will run backups nightly, backing up only the data that has changed. If the hard drive on a managed device crashes, the "home administrator" will be able to recover the lost documents, photos, music, or video clips from one of the Windows Home Server's hard drives. It will also function as a traditional file server, enabling users to access their own folders, as well as other users' folders (as long as it's not password protected).

Home administrators will also be able to fix various problems that may crop up on managed PCs by performing roll-backs to a previous, stable state. They'll also be able to see the current security state of connected PCs, such as whether antivirus is running or whether Windows Update has been disabled on one of the managed PCs, although some of these features will only be supported on Vista clients.

The HP MediaSmart Server will be powered by a 1.8 GHz, 64-bit AMD Sempron processor, and will include four hard drive bays for 750 GB SATA drives. The device will be able to support 6 TB of storage capacity, according to Microsoft; the unit's memory capabilities weren't revealed.

The MediaSmart Server will support hot swapping of hard drives, and will notify all connected users when the drives are nearing their capacity and it's time to add another hard drive. It will also support data striping across the Windows Home Server drives, giving users additional protection. "It gives you all the benefits of RAID without the complexity," Sider says. It will also include four USB ports that support external storage; the USB ports can also be used to hook up printers, which can then be accessed by all users.

Ease of Use is Paramount

A secondary benefit of Windows Home Server is remote access. Users will be able access data remotely by logging onto the computer over the Web. First, users must set up a Web site using Windows Live, which is free, and then log onto the server from the Windows Live Web site. Microsoft says it has greatly streamlined the process of setting up personalized Web sites through Windows Live, but this remains as a potential stumbling block.

Indeed, the success or failure of the whole Windows Home Server project hinges on whether Microsoft and its partners can make it easy to set up and use. Not surprisingly, Microsoft and HP insist they have done exactly that with their new products. According to Steven VanRoekel, director of Microsoft's Windows Server Solutions Group, setting up the new device will be a snap.

"Customers will basically take the HP MediaSmart Server unit out of its box, plug in two cables--the power cable and a network cable that connects to a home router or hub next to the cable or DSL modem--and the unit will basically be up and running," VanRoekel says in a PressPass Q&A on the Microsoft Web site.

Users must then initialize each PC that will be managed by the server by installing a CD-ROM and answering the questions asked by the wizard. The questions are in plain English, and don't get into technical details, like IP addresses, that may be above some users heads, Sider says.

"We've done a lot of work to make Windows Home Server very consumer-friendly and avoiding any acronyms," VanRoekel says.

But avoiding acronyms will only get Windows Home Server so far. For starters, the new product's reliance on Windows Media Connect to stream video and audio content from the server down to the home entertainment center--where people are investing the bulk of their entertainment dollars these days--seems designed to favor Microsoft's Xbox 360 game console (and HD DVD player) and its Zune digital music player over rival offerings. Whether or not a successful ecosystem is created around Windows Home Server would seem to depend on the uptake of the Windows Media Connect format.

Almost on queue, Apple yesterday relaunched its iTV, which it's now calling Apple TV. The $299 device will feature a 40 GB hard drive, support for 802.11x and Ethernet network connections, and HDMI for connecting the device to a high definition TV.

It's doubtful whether Apple will enable a more open home media server than Microsoft, considering the strict licensing terms it has enacted with its iTunes media player. But the fact that the two rivals are pursuing similar devices bodes well for the future of in-home networking, and competition for supremacy in this emerging space.

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