Microsoft Ships Windows Home Server

Published: July 18, 2007

by Alex Woodie

Microsoft this week announced that Windows Home Server, the consumer-variant of Windows Server 2003 designed to function as the central hub in a Windows home network, has been released to manufacturing (RTM), starting the countdown for customer availability. Microsoft also announced it has added two new OEMs to the Home Server program.

Microsoft introduced the Windows Home Server earlier this year at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. By centralizing certain storage and management tasks on a server, Microsoft hopes to lessen the administrative overhead required to separately maintain multiple PCs.

Based on the restricted-use version of Windows Server 2003, Windows Home Server acts as a storage and integration hub, mainly for other Windows Vista and Windows XP PCs, but also for Microsoft's Zune music players, Xbox gaming consoles, and Windows-based digital video recorders (DVRs).

One of the primary benefits of Windows Home Server is centralized backup and recovery. Once other PCs and devices are hooked up, Windows Home Server will run backups nightly, copying 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 files. It will also function as a traditional file server. 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.

Microsoft also announced that Iomega and Fujitsu-Siemens Computers have joined the ranks of OEMs planning to build and sell Windows Home Server systems. Other OEMs planning to help build or sell Home Server systems include Hewlett-Packard, Gateway, Lacie, and Medion. (Quanta Computer and Inventec, which were originally listed as participants in the Home Server project, apparently are no longer involved with the project.)

"We did it," writes Charlie Kindel, general manager of Windows Home Server, on the Windows Home Server Blog. "This has been an exciting and rewarding journey for me and the team. For me it's been a labor of love for over eight years. The 'Quattro' project began in February 2004 and we became a product group in April 2005. As you can imagine, I am extremely gratified that we have built a great V1 product on time and on budget."

While Windows Home Server has "RTM'ed" (using Microsoft's parlance), that doesn't mean it's available yet. The two software versions, including the evaluation version and the system builder version, should be available within a couple of months, while full hardware-software solutions built by OEMs will be on shelves by this fall, Kindel says. The first release of Home Server will be available in English, and it will be followed with versions in French, German, and Spanish.

Microsoft has also sponsored a development project called the "Code2Fame Challenge," in which it encourages interested parties to develop software and hardware add-ons that work with Windows Home Server. The top two winners of the Code2Fame Challenge will each get $10,000. The deadline for entry is August 31. For more information, visit www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/windowshomeserver/partners/challenge.mspx

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