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Windows Home Server

I have recently set-up a home server using the Windows Home Server Operating System. The details of the set-up will follow in a future post but firstly I thought I would quickly introduce the Windows Home Server (WHS) product and provide some useful links.

Windows Home Server was released by Microsoft in 2007 and is built on top of Windows Server 2003. It’s role is to sit quietly in your home and automatically backup all your PCs, provide NAS (Network Attached Storage) file sharing features, media streaming and remote access. It’s protects your data from hard drive failure by duplicating your data over multiple drives where you have a multi-drive system.

WHS can be bought pre-installed on custom devices from companies like HP and Acer or you can install it yourself on your own kit. As the hardware requirements are so light its possible to get it running on an old PC you might have lying around. Alternatively build or purchase a cheap low end PC for the purpose.

Particularly of interest to developers is the WHS Add-In model. WHS can be extended through the use of ‘Add-Ins’ from various ISVs (Independent Software Vendors) and enthusiast developers. Microsoft provides a Windows Home Server Add-In SDK for .Net Developers wanting to write Add-Ins for WHS and Brendan Grant has Visual Studio project templates on his blog.

Here’s a selection of links for more information:

This post is licensed under CC BY 4.0 by the author.