iTunes on your Windows Home Server…

I saw an article about a new piece of software that is being sold that allows users to host their iTunes application as a service on their Windows Home Server version 1 (v1) or version 2011 (v2).  This does not make any sense to me why someone would pay for this functionality when you can do this for free and not need a service to be running on your Windows Home Server.

I no longer use iTunes as my primary music and podcast application but I do interact with iTunes to keep my wife’s iPod Nano updated. Here is the process I followed to setup iTunes on my Windows Home Server and have had no issues so far.

1. Install iTunes on your client machine

2. Go to your music folder (or the location where you have installed iTunes)

3. Cut/paste the contents of the iTunes folder to your Music shared folder or a newly created shared drive on your Windows Home Server

4. Be sure that you have enabled the shared folder on your Windows Home Server to have the correct access for your client machines/devices that will be streaming your iTunes content

5. Go to your client and launch iTunes program while pushing down the SHIFT key and you will get a prompt to pick your iTunes library file (*.itl file)

6. Navigate to the share folder you have just cut/pasted your iTunes content to and choose the *.itl file

7. Navigate to the share folder you have just cut/pasted your iTunes content to and choose the *.itl file

8. Once you have done steps 5 and 6 on all of your client machines you are now using iTunes while your content is hosted on your Windows Home Server.

One thing you will want to remember is that if you upgrade one of your client machines it will upgrade your iTunes library and you will need to upgrade the rest of your client machines at the same time.

 

WHS2011 Project Update…

As I have mentioned in the past I am working on creating a WHS2011 add-in with my brothers. This is a slow process for us guys as this will be the first application development project we have ever done. We have thought about the Windows Home Server platform and what it has to offer along with what is still missing in functionality. We all have agreed that extending the IIS functionality of the WHS2011 would be a great way to go. 

Our idea is to create a package for WHS2011 users that will create a child site off from the parent yourservername.homeserver.com/?  This idea has been done before with WHSv1 but when you are creating something new it is nice to have a previous idea to build off from.  The add-in that I am referring for WHSv1 is called P80.  We think this is a really good idea and has plenty of potential. 

 

Discovering & using Microsoft’s Mouse Without Borders…

As a person that has used multiple monitors and machines at the same time since I was 19 (note that I am 28 at the time I am writing this post) is changing the way I do things.  Before this Microsoft Garage project came to fruition KVM switches were the primary way to efficiently use multiple machines at one time.  Over the years the amount of machines I have used at the same time has gone up and down.  Up as I got more into technology and down as the technology became more powerful.  Now I run a single desktop for my primary machine, a Samsung 10.1 tablet for email, twitter, Google+/Facebook, news,… and a server (Windows Home Server that is) for hosting all of my data (docs, photos, movies, music,…).

I was pretty excited about this product when I came across the Engadget post in my Google Reader feed one morning.  I was unsure how it worked exactly but I do remember the title of the post “Microsoft’s Mouse Without Borders: the KVM that killed the KVM” which sounded unbelievable.  Could it be true that there is finally software that will allow my keyboard and mouse to go from one computer to the next without issues or a high level of complexity?

I have to say that I have been using Microsoft’s Mouse Without Borders for two weeks now and have had no issues.  I am seamlessly moving my mouse; and simultaneously the keyboard, from my dual monitor desktop setup to the screen connected to the server without issues or any notice at all.

I have suggested and talked to people about this great product already based off my experience and I recommend you give Microsoft’s Mouse Without Borders a try if you would like to due away with your KVM switch or just try the software out with two or more machines.  I think you will find it to be very sophisticated.

 

Windows Home Server and Windows Home Groups…

I have been using Windows Home Server 2011 now for 3+ months and am really enjoying the new features and interface. One of the features that I had not tested yet was the ability to use Home Groups. Like all changes in technology I was not about to put this on my production server. I did some quick research on the internet and then proceeded to start up my test VM of Windows Server 2011 and my test VM of Windows 7 Ultimate on my desktop. I went through the steps to setup the Home Group on the test WHS and then went to the client VM and added the Home Group code to the client. That completes the setup of a Home Group.

Although the Home Group feature that is built into Windows 7 and Windows Home Server 2011 is very easy to setup, I found that all of my user account controls for the individual shared folders was no longer intact. Instead, any user on the network had access to all of the shared folders that I had on the WHS. This is not what I want and was a show stopper for me in implementing Home Groups into my production architecture. That find was also enough for me to stop testing immediately.

The wonderful thing about testing using VM’s is that all I had to do was close the VM windows and select the option to not save the current state of the VM and next time I start the VM the will be in the same state they were before I setup the Home Group. Therefore, undoing all of the changes I had made.

***** My Knee Jerk *****
Home Groups are not for me and I would think that for most people that would be savvy enough to have a server in their home would not appreciate the features of Home Groups. But for those that don’t want to configure user account controls for share folders and just want to ensure that any and all users on their local networks can access all of the information, Home Groups are a perfect solution.