Chapter 10. Complete Your Home Network with Windows Home Server

In This Chapter

  • Installing and configuring Windows Home Server

  • Understanding the Windows Home Server Console

  • Utilizing Windows Home Server's unique features

Windows 7 is Microsoft's most impressive desktop operating system to date, but in today's world, few users actually access a single PC. In addition, you use online services, have portable devices such as smart phones and portable media players, and manage home networks with two or more PCs, some of which are laptops and other mobile computers. Throughout this book, we've tried to maintain this sense of perspective, because Windows 7 doesn't exist in a vacuum. Instead, it's part of a complex and growing electronic ecosystem of products and services. That's why we also cover Zune, Windows Mobile, and Microsoft's Live services in this book. They're all interrelated.

But if you're looking for one product that can really simplify the management of a multi-PC home, Windows Home Server has no peers. Don't let the name scare you: though this product is indeed based on Microsoft's enterprise-class servers, Windows Home Server is designed for home users, and it is surprisingly easy to use, given its vast capabilities. In this chapter, we'll examine Windows Home Server, Microsoft's solution for the multi-PC home.

Introducing the Home Server

In late 2007, Microsoft's PC maker and hardware partners began shipping specially designed home server products based around a new operating ...

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