Windows 8 Release Preview in Early June

Microsoft announced via a tweet that the Release Preview of Windows 8 will be made available the first week of June.

Building Windows 8 Release Preview Announcement

The tweet from the Building Windows 8 team came from Japan’s Windows 8 Dev Days conference where Windows chief Steven Sinofsky announced the news.

UPDATE: The Windows Server Blog has also stated that they plan to deliver a release candidate of Windows Server 2012 in the same timeframe too.

Add-In: WHS Quicken 2011 Released

WHS Quicken 2011 is an add-in for Windows Home Server 2011, Windows Small Business Server 2011 Essentials, and Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials.

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WHS Quicken 2011 is a complete rewrite, of the WHS Quicken for WHS V1 add-in that provides individual user-level access to Intuit’s Quicken application from your Windows Server Solutions server.

WHS Quicken 2011 can run a server-installed copy of Quicken from any computer just as if it were running directly on the local computer. Quicken runs in its own fully resizable window with its own entry in the taskbar. Its popup windows are redirected to the local desktop, its notification area icons (if any) appear in the local computer’s notification area, and the local computer’s drives and printers can be redirected to it; making a completely seamless “Quicken” experience for your end-users.
 
With WHS Quicken 2011, a single server-side installation of Quicken can be shared by up to 10 computers on your network (up to 25 for WSBS and WSS). Saving you money as well as providing each of your users with full access to their very own instance of Quicken locally, from their network-attached computer, or remotely from anywhere in the world using the server’s built-in Remote Web Access website.

WHS Quicken 2011 is available as a fully functional 21 day trial version, after which it will cost you $39.99 ($29.99 for a WHS Quicken v2 to WHS Quicken 2011 Upgrade)

More information is available from here.

Add-In: WHS QuickBooks 2011 Released

WHS QuickBooks 2011 has been released by The Office Maven.

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WHS QuickBooks 2011 is a complete rewrite, of the WHS QuickBooks for WHS V1 add-in that provides individual user-level access to Intuit’s QuickBooks application from your Windows Server Solutions server.

Available for Windows Home Server 2011, Windows Small Business Server 2011 Essentials, and Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials WHS QuickBooks 2011 can run a server-installed copy of QuickBooks from any computer just as if it were running directly on the local computer. QuickBooks runs in its own fully resizable window with its own entry in the taskbar. Its popup windows are redirected to the local desktop, its notification area icons (if any) appear in the local computer’s notification area, and the local computer’s drives and printers can be redirected to it; making a completely seamless “QuickBooks” experience for your end-users.

A single server-side installation of QuickBooks can be shared by up to 10 computers on your network (up to 25 for WSBS and WSS). Saving you money as well as providing each of your users with full access to their very own instance of QuickBooks locally, from their network-attached computer, or remotely from anywhere in the world using the server’s built-in Remote Web Access website.

A a fully functional 21 day trial version is available after which the add-in will cost you $49.99 ($39.99 for a WHS QuickBooks v2 to WHS QuickBooks 2011 Upgrade).

More information on WHS QuickBooks 2011 is available from here.

Add-In: WHS Office 2011

Mike Craven (also known as the Office Maven released WHS Outlook 2011 2 weeks ago and has now released WHS Office 2011.

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WHS Office 2011 is a complete rewrite, of the WHS Office for WHS V1 add-in that provides individual user-level access to each of the Microsoft Office applications (Access, Excel, Lync, OneNote, Outlook, PowerPoint, Publisher, Word, and the Microsoft Office Picture Manager) from your Windows Server Solutions server.

This new add-in works on Windows Home Server 2011, Windows Small Business Server 2011 Essentials, and Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials.

WHS Office 2011 can run a server-installed copy of each of the Microsoft Office applications from any computer just as if they were running directly on the local computer. Each application runs in its own fully resizable window with its own entry in the taskbar. Its popup windows are redirected to the local desktop, its notification area icons (if any) appear in the local computer’s notification area, and the local computer’s drives and printers can be redirected to it; making a completely seamless “Office” experience for your end-users.
 
With WHS Office 2011, a single server-side installation of Microsoft Office can be shared by up to 10 computers on your network (up to 25 for WSBS and WSS). Saving you money as well as providing each of your users with full access to their very own instance of the individual Microsoft Office applications locally, from their network-attached computer, or remotely from anywhere in the world using the server’s built-in Remote Web Access website.

A fully functional 21 day evaluation copy is available after which WHS Office 2011 will cost you $49.99 or $39.99 if upgrading from the previous add-in.

More details are available from here.

Force Change the Initial Password for a Newly Created WHS Account

WHS Change Expired Password

John Keller explains to us how to force change newly created accounts initial passwords upon logging into your home server for the first time.

“There are two main reasons you would want to do this, One the intended user can choose a password that they can hopefully remember it and two you as the family or small business administrator don’t have to send a permanent password to where it could be possibly be intercepted by an unknown third party.”

The rest of the tutorial you can find here.

The Home Server Show Podcast Episode 180

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Another week and another episode of The Home Server Show:

I crawled out from underneath my rock and found out how popular this Hunger Games stuff is.  Also, Microsoft drops a bombshell on the Media Center enthusiast crowd.  Media Center is now an add on software only on the Windows 8 Pro edition.  John, Jim, and Dave are dropped into the Hunger Games arena to battle it out on this issue.  Will a victor emerge?  Other topics include virtual machines on your home server, Windows 8 on the iPad, SkyDrive can tweet, Raid, and Drive Extender alternatives.  Enjoy.

You can find episode 180 here.

Cubby Another Cloud Service

Cubby Beta Logo

News of another Cloud service which may be of use to Home Server users:

LogMeIn Inc. the company behind the popular namesake remote access service, has just opened the beta of ‘Cubby’, an all new cloud data service to simply and securely share information across PCs, Macs, iPads, iPhones, Android devices, or with other people. The first service built on LogMeIn’s very own cloud data sync and storage platform, Cubby lets people turn any number of PC or Mac folders into ‘cubbies’ that can be accessed from other devices, stored in the cloud, and shared with colleagues and friends. Cubby also gives people the option to simply share or sync an unlimited amount of information across their devices for free, and without ever counting against cloud storage limits. As a result, people have the flexibility to share and access information across their devices without having to worry about creating a new, separate version of their digital life in the cloud.

People interested in participating in the Cubby beta, which includes 5GB of cloud storage, free unlimited syncing across devices, as well as apps for the iPad, iPhone, Android, Mac and Windows, can request an invitation at Cubby.com.

"When it comes to sharing data in the cloud today, most solutions on the market are ultra simple but inflexible, or highly flexible but inherently complex. We see Cubby as an opportunity to deliver an ideal balance of simplicity and flexibility," said Marton Anka, LogMeIn’s CTO. "It is designed to adapt to the way people naturally interact with their information — to deliver the benefits of the cloud without forcing people to change their behavior."

Cubby highlights:

  • Any folder can be a cubby — People can simply use the folders they have — their existing PC or Mac folders — or they can take advantage of a simple, easy-to-use default cubby. There’s no need to put files and documents into a single cloud folder/box, and no need to recreate existing folders.
  • Share your stuff across devices for free, cloud optional — People can share their stuff across their devices for free, without being restricted by cloud data storage limitations. Cubbies can be stored to the cloud or simply synced across devices.
  • Decide what content gets shared across which devices — Any cubby and its content can be synced to selected devices. So people can keep their work, personal and family information as separate as they’d like. No need to have those family holiday photos on your work PC or a copy of the latest TPS report from the office on your kid’s Macbook.
  • Multiple ways to share and collaborate with others — Cubbies and their content can be shared with others either by inviting them into a cubby, which lets both parties see, work with, and sync content; or they can simply send people read-only links to files and cubbies.
  • Simple access from anywhere, any device — Cubby can be accessed from any web browser, comes standard with Mac and PC desktop apps, and offers a free iPad and iPhone app in the Apple App Store and a free Android app in Google Play.
  • Architected for security — Built on the same architecture used for LogMeIn’s connectivity products, Cubby takes advantage of industry best encryption standards to ensure data is protected at all times. As a key additional step, Cubby is designed in a way that gives users the ability to be the sole owner and holder of their encryption keys.

More information is available at Cubby.

Add-In: Home Server SMART 2012 v2.2.4.17

Version 2.2.4.17 (code name "New Medicine") of Home Server SMART 2012 has been published.

Home Server SMART 2012, is a SMART disk monitoring add-in for Windows Home Server 2011, and is currently available as a public beta.

Home Server SMART 2012 Bad Sector Count

The version of Home Server SMART released is Beta 6. This is a pre-release version of the software. It is very reasonable that some significant bugs remain, but for the most part, the add-in is feature complete, with two major exceptions. Beta 6 will be the last "series" of betas–there will be a beta 6a and possibly 6b, after which the plan is to move into Release Candidate status, hopefully by mid-to-late May.

More info including the download can be found here.

Windows Server 8 becomes Windows Server 2012

Microsoft Sign on Campus

After naming the desktop and ARM editions of Windows 8, Microsoft have also announced that Windows Server 8 will be known as Windows Server 2012 when it is released later this year.

The next version of Windows Home Server will be based on this server edition which will include Microsoft’s new Resilient File System (ReFS), and as we can see the naming convention is in line with existing server naming. e.g. 2003, 2008.

Drive Bender Tomcat Release Due 24th April

All being well version 1.3 of Drive Bender (code name Tomcat) will be available on the 24th April.

Drive Bender have just posted the following screen shots of their upcoming release, and I must say it looks very nice too:

Drive Bender Tomcat Release Pool Management

Drive Bender Tomcat Release Manager