Futurecat - Michael Karek

Happy Holidays from Windows Home Server!! In celebration of “Cyber Monday” and the holiday season, we figured it was the perfect time to tell you all about all of the fantastic Windows Home Server discounts that are being offered. Windows Home Server has teamed up with Acer, HP, and our newest OEM, ASUS, to provide some of the lowest prices we have ever seen for Windows Home Server.

Acer:

• What: 1 TB Acer EasyStore Home Server
• Price: $299
• Where: Amazon.com 
• When: Cyber Monday 11/30 – Today only!

ASUS:

• What: 500GB ASUS TS Mini Server
• Price: $299
• Where: Amazon.com or Newegg.com
• When: Cyber Monday 11/30 – Today only!

HP:

• What: HP EX490 1TB version
• Price: $469
• Where: Newegg.com or Amazon.com
• When: Prices while supplies last

HP:

• What: HP LX195 640GB Home Server
• Price: $199
• Where: Amazon.com
• When: Prices while supplies last

These Home Servers have been selling out fast so don’t miss your opportunity to give the ultimate gift this holiday season!

- The Windows Home Server team

Gastbeitrag von Georg Binder , selbständiger IT-Dienstleister und Autor von windowsblog.at . Weil Martina unlängst neben mir sitzend gerade das Problem hatte: Es gibt das Problem, dass eine mit BitLocker geschützte Maschine mit schwarzem Bildschirm beim…(read more)

Want to avoid the mad rush to the malls this weekend? You can shop right from home this holiday season at the online Microsoft Store.

The Microsoft Store has some smoking hot deals that they will be unveiling starting this Friday (the day after Thanksgiving). However they are letting me exclusively reveal some of their deals for you today! Here are just some of the deals they will be featuring during this holiday season:

• Free Lenovo S10 netbook when you buy a Lenovo T400 or X301 notebook, or A600 All-in-one desktop PC.
• Free shipping on everything for a limited time.
• Get an amazing deal on Office Home & Student—just $79.99.  That’s a savings of $70!  Or save almost $80 on Office Small Business Edition.
• Free 3-month subscription to Xbox LIVE when you buy an Xbox Elite Console—or get 30% off selected Xbox accessories.
• Get $50 off an HP Photosmart Printer.
• Save $50 when you buy an Xbox Premium Console and Beatles Rock Band together.
• 30% off select headsets for that gamer on your list.
• Save $50 on any monitor when you buy any desktop or laptop in the store (Netbooks not included).

Click here to go to the Microsoft Store for complete details, and remember that these deals are just for a limited time.

It’s going to be a season full of bargains, so make sure you don’t miss out.

Today we announced we are partnering with eBay to highlight eBay Daily Deals through Internet Explorer 8 using a Web Slice. The eBay Daily Deals Web Slice will keep folks informed popular products selling at pretty nice discounts. The Web Slice sits on a person’s Favorites Bar in Internet Explorer 8 and will offer continued updates and detailed information about eBay Daily Deals.

You can get the eBay Daily Deals Web Slice by clicking here. You can also add eBay as a Search Provider (which uses Visual Search) in Internet Explorer 8 and also the eBay Accelerator.

For more information on our partnership with eBay, see PressPass.

While shopping online, being secure is very important to consumers. We developed Internet Explorer 8 with that in mind. Back in August, I blogged about a study done by NSS Labs that shows that Internet Explorer 8 is the #1 browser in malware protection and also the #1 browser in phishing protection. You can read that post here. I encourage folks making online purchases to use Internet Explorer 8 to stay safe and secure.

Users that have installed any pre-release versions of Windows Home Server Power Packs will need to take actions to prepare for Power Pack 3. The prerequisite for successful download and installation of Power Pack 3 is to be running the correct version of Windows Home Server with Power Pack 2. If you have a beta version or a release candidate version of a Power Pack installed, you must uninstall these preliminary versions before you install this final version of Power Pack 3.

First, you’ll need to Remote Desktop into your Windows Home Server. Below are the instructions on how to complete this step for Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7.

Step-By-Step Instructions on How to Access the Windows Home Server Administrator’s Desktop

How to connect to the Windows Home Server Administrator’s Desktop from any home computer running Windows XP

1. On your home computer, click Start, point to All Programs, and then point to Accessories.
2. In the Accessories menu, point to Communications, and then click Remote Desktop Connection.
3. In the Computer box, type the name of your home server.

4. Click Connect.

5. When the Log On to Windows dialog box appears, type “Administrator” as the user name and use your Windows Home Server Console password as the password, and then click OK. This will begin your Remote Desktop session.

How to connect your Windows Home Server Administrator’s Desktop from any home computer running Windows Vista and Windows 7

1. On your home computer, click Start, point to All Programs, and then point to Accessories.
2. In the Accessories menu click Remote Desktop Connection.
3. In the Computer box, type the name of your home server.
4. Click Connect.
5. When the Log On to Windows dialog box appears, type “Administrator” as the user name and use your Windows Home Server Console password as the password, and then click OK.

For pre-release versions of Power Pack 3:

1. Access the Windows Home Server Administrator’s Desktop using the Remote Desktop instructions from above.
2. Navigate to Hotfix for Windows Search 4 – KB969949 at Start > Control Panel > Add or Remove Programs
3. Click Remove

4.  Navigate to the Windows Home Server Power Pack 3 eta folder at Start > My   computer > D: > Shares > Software > Windows home Server Power Pack 3 Beta.

5.  Run the Uninstall.cmd file to un-install Power Pack 3 Beta. After reboot, your Home Server will revert back to your previous version.

For pre-release versions of Power Pack 1 & Power Pack 2:

1. Access the Windows Home Server Administrator’s Desktop using the Remote Desktop instructions from above.
2. Navigate to the Windows Home Server Power Pack 3 Beta folder at Start > Control Panel > Add or Remove Programs

1. Verify ‘Show updates’ is checked and scroll through the list to verify there are no PRERELEASE software installed.
2. If PRERELEASE software is found, select the latest Power Pack version and click Remove, working your uninstall from Power Pack 3, to Power Pack 2, to Power Pack 1 and rebooting after each uninstall.
3. After completing the uninstall of all PRERELEASE Power Pack versions, open the Windows Home Server Console > Click Settings > General Page > Windows Update

Power Pack 3 will automatically install as part of Windows Update if Automatic Updates is enabled on the home server.  A notification appears in the Windows Home Server Console, telling you that Power Pack 3 is ready to install. Click Install to start the installation.

After installation has completed, you can verify that the most current version of Windows Home Server by checking in the Windows Home Server console. You should see version 6.0.2423.0.

1. 1. Open the Windows Home Server Console
2. 2. Click Settings
3. 3. Click Resources

If you are still having issues and your version numbers are not the same as above, please visit our support forums where the community can assist you.

http://social.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/category/WindowsHomeServer/

If you take a look back to the Top 10 Reasons to use Windows Home Server, you can see that I have gone over the majority of these points.  In this post, I am going to share a little more about items 4 and 6: libraries and user accounts.

Windows Home Server’s integration with Windows 7 libraries is one of my personal favorite features. I have 4 computers at home that hold hundreds of pictures. I love being able to share my photos with friends and family, but unfortunately before Windows Home Server, I could never find what I was looking for! It would take me up to an hour to look through all 4 computers and all of the picture folders on each PC to find a specific set of photos.

With Windows Home Server as your media server, your digital memories will be kept in a central location so that you can access what you want from any computer on the network. Integration with Windows 7 libraries means that your Windows Home Server will automatically add and store your digital memories in the libraries. This enables you to quickly access what you want from any computer on the network and save time by having all your things in one place.

*Screen shot of Pictures Library. Notice pictures in this location are from “My pictures”, “Public Pictures”, and all pictures on the home server.

Windows Home Server users, Grant and David, saw the benefits to having all of his content located in Shared Folders and stated:

• · “I am now backing up six computers in my home and moved all my music and video data to the home server where it can be shared with the Xbox 360 and other computers in the house. Before, we had this content everywhere.” –Grant
• · “After installing Windows Home Server and moving all existing data to the Windows Home Server, management of the data is simplified and i no longer has to worry about moving data to new hard disk nor backing up of data” -David

Although libraries store and centralize all of your digital content, you may still want to keep particular items private, or not edited and changed by other users on your network. To increase protection on all of your important content, Windows Home Server allows you to create up to 10 user accounts. Windows Home Server gives you the ability to change which Shared Folders users have access to by either allowing “read/write” access, “read only” or “no access”.

As you can see from the image above, prominent blogger, Terry Walsh and his wife, have easily set up their user accounts. For a step by step in how to set up user accounts, you can visit Terry’s blog.

To learn more about Windows Home Server along with libraries and user accounts, please visit the Windows Home Server Web site.

Gastbeitrag von Georg Binder , selbständiger IT-Dienstleister und Autor von windowsblog.at . Nadine fragt: “Wo finde ich eine Liste oder Link , wo Kunden die auf Windows 7 (32 Bit und/oder 64 Bit) migrieren möchten nachlesen könnten, welche Applikationen…(read more)

After seeing all the great new technology at the PDC in LA last week, I’m very excited to get started on my holiday shopping! Earlier this year, I bought my wife a new Windows 7 PC, which has now inspired me to think about what other electronics and software we may need this holiday.

The challenge with shopping this year is there are simply so many fantastic products to choose from.  So here is my advice – looking for products that have earned the “Compatible with Windows 7 logo” is the best way to know the product will work as expected and give you a great experience. These products have passed Microsoft designed tests for compatibility and reliability with Windows 7 including testing for common issues to minimize the number of crashes, hangs and reboots. With the growing number of Windows 7 PCs running 64 bit, you can also be confident that any product displaying the “Compatible with Windows 7” logo also works on all versions of Windows 7, including 64 bit. Over 9,000 products have earned the logo so there is a logo’d product in every applicable category:  anti-virus, printers, games, networking gear, cameras, digital picture frames, graphics cards, portable media players, productivity suites, monitors and displays, system utilities, and webcams.

How to find logo’d products -

#1 Check the status on the Windows 7 Compatibility Center

You can browse or search the compatibility center easily check which products have earned the logo. There are Windows 7 Compatibility Centers around the world to support you.

• Germany: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/compatibility/de-de/default.aspx
• Spain: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/compatibility/es-es/default.aspx
• Italy: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/compatibility/it-it/default.aspx
• China: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/compatibility/zh-cn/default.aspx
• Russia: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/compatibility/ru-ru/default.aspx
• US: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/compatibility/en-US/default.aspx
• France: http://www.microsoft.com/france/windows/windows7/compatibilite/
• Japan: http://www.microsoft.com/japan/windows/windows-7/compatibility/default.aspx

#2 Check the box on the shelf

Many manufacturers display the logo on their box- so you can simply check the box at retail. Here is a great example:

#3 Ask the retailer

You can simply ask any associate to direct you to products that display the “Compatible with Windows 7” logo.

#4 Look on retail sites

The logo is now displayed on 20 retailer websites. Here is just a sample of some popular sites displaying the logo:

1. Shopper.com

2. Buy.com

3. Staples.com

4. Zones.com

5. with many more coming soon…

Ok!  I’m off to start my own holiday shopping!

Feeling literary? Creative? Or maybe just passionate for the latest generation of Windows Home Server devices hitting the market? Either way, here’s your chance to win a Home Server and host of other great prizes including Zune HD players and 1 TB hard drives to help expand your storage.

Through December 11^th, Intel and Microsoft are co-sponsoring A Home Server Haiku contest. To enter, simply write a haiku about how a home server would help bring peace of mind to your life—or simply why you really want one. Your name will be entered in a contest to win one of three new home servers, one of ten Zune digital audio players, or one of ten 1TB hard drives.

If you’re like me, a handy English class refresher on Haikus can be found here, courtesy of Wikipedia (simply put, it’s a poem made up of three lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables, with thankfully no rhyming needed). 

More details – and the entry form – are up on the website www.winahomeserver.com.

So here’s my attempt:

Each day it helps me

From its perch in my basement

My little server

I’m sure you can do better…Give it a try, and spread the word!

- Mark

Gastbeitrag von Georg Binder , selbständiger IT-Dienstleister und Autor von windowsblog.at . Das beliebte SyncToy steht in einer neuen Version zum freien Download zur Verfügung – inklusive Windows 7 Unterstützung. SyncToy hält Daten zwischen Ordnern synchron…(read more)