Andreas M's Windows Home Server AddIns

As I’m getting ready for the final release of the Advanced Admin Console 2011 AddIn for the 2011 range of Microsoft Windows Servers I’ve now created a Facebook page for it. This will allow for better interaction with AAC users and give you a place for sharing your feedback and suggestions with me and other AAC users.

Please visit the Page here and ‘Like’ it!

If everything works out as planned, Advanced Admin Console 2011 licenses will be available for purchase before the end of January 2012.

As promised earlier this week, the public beta of my new Advanced Admin Console 2011 AddIn for Windows Home Server 2011 and Windows Small Business Server 2011 Essentials is finally available for download.

The Advanced Admin Console AddIn (AAC) for the first version of Windows Home Server was a huge success and AAC 2011 has been developed from scratch in order to fully harness the new features and capabilities available in the 2011 range of server operating systems from Microsoft.

Key features

Advanced Admin Console enables full Windows Explorer and Internet Explorer integration in the server Dashboard:

The Server Administration Tasks Panel brings a comprehensive list of administrative tools and resources to your fingertips. The goal is to make the Dashboard the central place of administration not only of your server but your entire network.

Windows Explorer links and Administrative Tools

This is accomplished by the Favorites Panel’s support for custom links to ‘pretty much everything’ (Web URLs, URLs to local services and other intranet URLs, files, folders, programs and other executables, etc.).

You can even access other machines and devices on your network and connect to them via Remote Desktop Connection if they are running a supported operating system.

Since AAC is fully integrated with the standard Windows Favorites functionality, all your custom links and shortcuts will also be available to you if you’re using Remote Desktop Connection to connect to your server. You don’t even have to use the Dashboard in this case:

Why would I want this, why do I need this?

Because it’s awesome! And because it’s pretty darn useful!

Ok, seriously: Windows Home Server 2011 and Windows Small Business Server 2011 Essentials are very powerful operating systems with lots of functionalities. Due to their expandability you can add additional server software like a blog (e.g. WordPress), a media streaming service (like Twonky) and a lot more. You also may have a couple of devices (like a router, switches or WiFi access points) on your network which support web based configuration interfaces. AAC 2011 makes it easy for you to access all of these from one central place of administration: The server’s Dashboard.

Once you have experienced it you won’t want to miss it again, I promise.

Installation on Windows Home Server 2011 or Windows Small Business Server 2011 Essentials

This video by Timothy Daleo shows the installation and first use of the AAC AddIn. Note: It’s mentioned several times in the video that AAC will expire on December 1, 2010. This is because the video is based on an earlier private technical preview version of AAC. The version published today (0.9.1 Beta) will work until August 1, 2011.

Download

Go to the downloads page to download the Advanced Admin Console 2011 Beta. You can share your opinion and discuss the beta over at the HomeServerLand forums.

You may have read about the Technical Preview over at homeserverland.com, wegotserved.co.uk, mediasmartserver.net or maybe the German blogs and news sources Bjoerns Windows Blog or home-server-blog.de.

Today, I’m proud to announce that the new version of my popular Advanced Admin Console AddIn (AAC) for the upcoming Windows Server offerings for home users and small businesses has reached an important milestone.

I made a first technical preview version of AAC available to tech-bloggers and the (p)reviews they’ve written so far tell me that I’m on the right track.

The next step is now to give AAC to about 30 beta testers to try it out and give feedback. If you’d like to take part in the beta test please write a short comment on this post, describing on which configuration you would be able to test AAC. Please include the following information:

• Windows Server Version you would install AAC on (‘Vail’, ‘Aurora’ or both)
• Client operating system version(s)
• Client operating system language version you normally work on
• Whether you’ll be using real machines or virtual machines for testing
• Whether you have experience with AAC on Windows Home Server (v1)
• Your general level of experience with Windows Home Server v1 and/or ‘Vail’/’Aurora’

Make sure to enter a valid email address so that I can send you your beta invitation. Beta tester invitations will not go out before September 22, 2010 – please be patient.

In the meantime please refer to these resources to find out more about the new version of the Advanced Admin Console and Windows Server codename ‘Vail’ and ‘Aurora’ in general:

In English

• Sneak Peek at Advanced Admin Console vNext Technical Preview
• Add-in: Advanced Admin Console vNext (Technical Preview)
• Technical Preview: Advanced Admin Console vNext Add-In for Vail & Aurora

In German

• Bjoerns Windows Blog
• Add-In: Advanced Admin Console vNext

Windows Home Server Codename “VAIL” is the next version of Windows Home Server, now in public beta. Just like with the “Home Server Console” in the current version, it will feature a central place of administration. In order to emphasize the evolution the console has gone through it is now named the Dashboard.

As detailed in my AAC Feature Focus article back in January, the Home Server Console runs on the server itself and its user interface is displayed on a client computer over a remote desktop session. One disadvantage of this method is that the console window has a fixed size and any application that is launched from the console is trapped within the console window:

  Regedit.exe run from the Advanced Admin Console on Windows Home Server

While the VAIL Dashboard is also running on the server the Dashboard client application now utilizes a new Remote Desktop Services feature called “RemoteApp”. RemoteApp integrates the Dashboard UI into the client’s desktop, thus creating a richer and more natural user experience:

  Regedit.exe run from the Advanced Admin Console on VAIL (Client’s Regedit in background)

As you can see, the Dashboard and the server’s Regedit window are not tied together, are fully resizable and they both appear on the client’s taskbar. Notice the contrast between the Windows 7/Server 2008 R2 window styles and the Windows XP desktop theme of the client while the Dashboard and its child windows are seamlessly integrated into the desktop.

As of yesterday, the next version of Windows Home Server (Codename “VAIL”) is now in public beta. The new version brings a lot of improvements and feature enhancements. One area that has completely been overhauled in VAIL is the home server console, which is now known as the Dashboard. The extensibility model of Windows Home Server has been completely redesigned in “VAIL” so that all AddIns need to be ported to the new platform.

I have already begun porting the Advanced Admin Console AddIn to Windows Home Server “VAIL”:

There’s still a lot of work to do, but I hope that by mid-may I can put up a public beta version for download.