It's been a long (long!) time since we've caught wind of a substantial Windows Home Server refresh, but for those waiting on pins and needles, we're thrilled to say that the excruciating wait has finally ended. Sort of. Microsoft has revealed today its public beta of the next version of WHS, code named "Vail." The primary upgrades / changes include the extension of media streaming outside of the home or office, improvements in multi-PC backup and restore, simplified setup and user experience as well as "significantly" expanded development and customization tools for partner. Beyond that, the company's playing things pretty close to the chest, but you can feel free to grab a 64-bit copy of the beta starting today and dig in yourself. 'Course, Microsoft recommends that you install the software on a secondary (read: not important to your livelihood) machine, and on the development front, it's introducing a new SDK for those who wish to "create add-in applications using Vail's new extensible programming model." So, whatcha waiting for? That download is a-callin', and a brief demo video is just beyond the break.
Update: And we've already got our first review -- good for those too chicken (or busy, frankly) to completely wipe a second PC just to see how Vail stacks up.
Was really hoping for a bit more Media Center integration. Nice to get some of the web guide stuff, but wish that it allowed for recording scheduling or even tuner installation on the server itself.
Media playback does look cool in the Silverlight player.
Wondering if it will stream recorded TV stored on an HTPC, and not in the Recorded TV folder on the server itself? And how it will handle "Copy Once" content if it does?
@andysexton Yeah me too. Sure its nice that it can act as an extender or whatever, but I want to use it as the HTPC that can also do backups. I don't really need or want two machines to do it and if it's going to be a primary machine for storing media content why not let me play it back via it.
There's little I see that warrants trying this out at all, especially if you read the known issues list.
Its very early in the development of Vail still, and a lot is likely to be included feature-wise. Yet, unless MS starts adding in the features we've been asking for, I see little incentive to ever want to upgrade to this version.
@SikSlayer so true... unbelievable! At this point of a beta release you better announce all up-coming features for example Windows Phone 7 tie-ins or further Media Center integration. There is no wow-factor and consumers will lose interest very quickly.
I hope that Vail will finally let me stream Mpeg-2 files directly to my Xbox 360. The current version of Windows Home Server requires that I run a separate Media Center PC to act as the middle man to stream the Mpeg-2 video format...WHS to Media Center PC to Xbox 360. Lame
I hope Microsoft has finally removed the requirement of the Media Center PC and lets me stream it directly to my Xbox 360 without any transcoding. *Fingers Crossed*
@the illustrious You can uncross your fingers. MPEG-2 streaming is not supported in the beta, though MS says it will be supported in a future upgrade. No time table was given.
After the upgrade, no Media Center PC should be required for streaming to the Xbox 360 IF AND ONLY IF you want to use the blade interface on the 360.
The reason why the current version of WHS can't stream directly is that the current version is built on WHS 2003 which doesn't have any advanced media streaming support. It's basically just a bunch of disks. All of the useful media stuff comes from the upgrade to Windows Server 2008 R2, which is based off of the Windows 7 codebase.
It's also the same reason why WHS couldn't record TV shows and such. It's not in the WS2K3 codebase (and making a frankenstein OS that would support that stuff makes no sense when WS2K8 R2 already does, but wasn't released until Oct 09).
@craigerous Maybe. In the video there's a website with your content on the cloud that you can access with another computer via internet. The same could probably be done with a WP7 phone.
I just hope that they've finally fixed the data issues. I've been dealing with massive file corruption issues for two weeks now. All hdd's pass diagnostics, and everything works.... Until you put files on the hdd's. Why can't the server either work properly or properly report the error? What's up with losing files while having folder duplication on?
@captaind172 Huh first never use a product with out backing up first. Second I used home server since its first beta what 3 years ago and never had a problem. I was one of the ones that complain about the data corruption but I had a backup and removed the second hard drive. Now the product is very reliable
I had a raid set up on one of those HP WHS. What happened was my server would sporadically show up and drop off the network. When I could log into to trouble shoot it would report everything was fine. Then go back to its ways. I decided I was going to get my stuff off of there, but it wouldn't stay connected long enough to get it off. When it's working I can see my data, open it, use it. I just have about a 10 minute window.
So I removed the hard drives and connected them to my computers, both windows and mac, as an external drive and was going to get my data that way. I can see everything on the hard drives but windows refuses to let me move the data, and the mac allows the data to move over but then the data is corrupt.
I've been told by some other HP WHS users that WHS claims "possession" of the files so you can't just simply connect the hard drives as externals and move the data off.
I've since switched to a linux file server with a raid. Just as a test I put some data on it I don't care about; removed the hard drives and connected them as externals to make sure I can still get the data that way just in case. Linux worked perfect in that regard. I won't trust WHS with my data. If you have any ideas I'd love to hear them. I still have the drives.
@captaind172 Why use RAID with WHS? Seems redundant and I don't see the purpose with the drive pool setup that WHS supports, and I think they actually recommend against combining the native drive pooling with RAID IIRC.
I had it done because I put a lot of stuff on there I didn't really want on my main desktop. I have two desktops and one laptop and I wanted them to all have access to same data through the server. So only the server contained certain things.
The HP automatically setup a raid when you drop in a new hard drive on top of that.
@captaind172 In all fairness though I don't think it's WHS's fault here. It's a system largely designed for backing content up. If your Linux based array fails and you don't have a backup you will lose data there also.
There surely had to be other ways to get the data off too such as plugging in a monitor and using an external drive and accessing the system direct without adding the external to the drive pool.
Thank you for allowing manual setup of remote access. It seemed like a really obvious feature of anything that offers remote access that I should be able to change they port it's on.
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posted April 26th 2010 2:34PM
Was really hoping for a bit more Media Center integration. Nice to get some of the web guide stuff, but wish that it allowed for recording scheduling or even tuner installation on the server itself.
Media playback does look cool in the Silverlight player.
Wondering if it will stream recorded TV stored on an HTPC, and not in the Recorded TV folder on the server itself? And how it will handle "Copy Once" content if it does?
@andysexton Yeah me too. Sure its nice that it can act as an extender or whatever, but I want to use it as the HTPC that can also do backups. I don't really need or want two machines to do it and if it's going to be a primary machine for storing media content why not let me play it back via it.
Ahh well.
There's little I see that warrants trying this out at all, especially if you read the known issues list.
Its very early in the development of Vail still, and a lot is likely to be included feature-wise. Yet, unless MS starts adding in the features we've been asking for, I see little incentive to ever want to upgrade to this version.
@SikSlayer - Couldn't agree more. No killer app, nothing new that I don't already have with an add-on.
@SikSlayer so true... unbelievable! At this point of a beta release you better announce all up-coming features for example Windows Phone 7 tie-ins or further Media Center integration. There is no wow-factor and consumers will lose interest very quickly.
@KingLear The remote site should have a mobile version too for use on mobiles, but im not sure if will have anything WP7 specific.
I proberbly will end up buying or building a new unit simply as a hardware refresh (USB3, SATA3 new CPU).
Wow, looks amazing. I'll be looking forward to the full version. :D
I hope that Vail will finally let me stream Mpeg-2 files directly to my Xbox 360. The current version of Windows Home Server requires that I run a separate Media Center PC to act as the middle man to stream the Mpeg-2 video format...WHS to Media Center PC to Xbox 360. Lame
I hope Microsoft has finally removed the requirement of the Media Center PC and lets me stream it directly to my Xbox 360 without any transcoding. *Fingers Crossed*
@the illustrious You can uncross your fingers. MPEG-2 streaming is not supported in the beta, though MS says it will be supported in a future upgrade. No time table was given.
After the upgrade, no Media Center PC should be required for streaming to the Xbox 360 IF AND ONLY IF you want to use the blade interface on the 360.
@the illustrious
The reason why the current version of WHS can't stream directly is that the current version is built on WHS 2003 which doesn't have any advanced media streaming support. It's basically just a bunch of disks. All of the useful media stuff comes from the upgrade to Windows Server 2008 R2, which is based off of the Windows 7 codebase.
It's also the same reason why WHS couldn't record TV shows and such. It's not in the WS2K3 codebase (and making a frankenstein OS that would support that stuff makes no sense when WS2K8 R2 already does, but wasn't released until Oct 09).
Is there a media extender in WP7 that could access this?
@craigerous Maybe. In the video there's a website with your content on the cloud that you can access with another computer via internet. The same could probably be done with a WP7 phone.
We have a 12 part preview of the Vail beta over at We Got Served - http://www.wegotserved.com/whs-vail-preview/
It's looking awesome!
HEY, Jerkface in the video....it's pronounced 'Vail' not 'Wail".
I just hope that they've finally fixed the data issues. I've been dealing with massive file corruption issues for two weeks now. All hdd's pass diagnostics, and everything works.... Until you put files on the hdd's. Why can't the server either work properly or properly report the error? What's up with losing files while having folder duplication on?
I lost a lot of data thanks for Windows Home Server.
@captaind172
Huh first never use a product with out backing up first. Second I used home server since its first beta what 3 years ago and never had a problem. I was one of the ones that complain about the data corruption but I had a backup and removed the second hard drive. Now the product is very reliable
@JCerna
I had a raid set up on one of those HP WHS. What happened was my server would sporadically show up and drop off the network. When I could log into to trouble shoot it would report everything was fine. Then go back to its ways. I decided I was going to get my stuff off of there, but it wouldn't stay connected long enough to get it off. When it's working I can see my data, open it, use it. I just have about a 10 minute window.
So I removed the hard drives and connected them to my computers, both windows and mac, as an external drive and was going to get my data that way. I can see everything on the hard drives but windows refuses to let me move the data, and the mac allows the data to move over but then the data is corrupt.
I've been told by some other HP WHS users that WHS claims "possession" of the files so you can't just simply connect the hard drives as externals and move the data off.
I've since switched to a linux file server with a raid. Just as a test I put some data on it I don't care about; removed the hard drives and connected them as externals to make sure I can still get the data that way just in case. Linux worked perfect in that regard. I won't trust WHS with my data. If you have any ideas I'd love to hear them. I still have the drives.
@captaind172 Why use RAID with WHS? Seems redundant and I don't see the purpose with the drive pool setup that WHS supports, and I think they actually recommend against combining the native drive pooling with RAID IIRC.
@andysexton
I had it done because I put a lot of stuff on there I didn't really want on my main desktop. I have two desktops and one laptop and I wanted them to all have access to same data through the server. So only the server contained certain things.
The HP automatically setup a raid when you drop in a new hard drive on top of that.
@captaind172 In all fairness though I don't think it's WHS's fault here. It's a system largely designed for backing content up. If your Linux based array fails and you don't have a backup you will lose data there also.
There surely had to be other ways to get the data off too such as plugging in a monitor and using an external drive and accessing the system direct without adding the external to the drive pool.
Thank you for allowing manual setup of remote access. It seemed like a really obvious feature of anything that offers remote access that I should be able to change they port it's on.
WHS is a nice piece of software..
Love the fact having a full backup of all pcs.
http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/LarryLarsen/Windows-Home-Server-Vail/
I don't get it... Windows Home Server? Why not just use Linux? It's better and it's free?