Chris Szurgot's Blog

I got into the Beta for Windows Home Server, and I've been running it since Saturday. I have to say I'm pretty impressed.

Since it's a software only beta, I repurposed a spare computer I had in the house, grabbed an extra harddrive to bring it up to 200 GB, burned the DVD, and let it spin. Install is a fairly painless process, answer a few questions at the beginning, let it go for a while, change the admin password, and pull the KVM (simulate headless experience)

It makes backing up a painless process, even tolerating network failures. I haven't tried a restore yet, but I will get a chance to since my wife's computer failed and she just took it in for servicing. (Right after the backup finished in fact) Fortunately, there was nothing critical on it in case the restore fails.

Remote access works well as far as sharing files, making it pleasantly easy to get some files from work to home and vice-versa. I can't get remote desktop to work, but I'm trying to determine if that's a network problem.

Like any beta, I'm seeing problems, but I'm reporting them and I'm sure they'll get fixed as appropriate.

They've done some wonderful work on this product, and when it's done, it will make a nice package for a connected household to manage data, connectivity, sharing and backups. With the right price point, this will be a real winner.

(I realize that most if not all of this could be done with other tools, and a linux box, but I've gone that route, and this is pleasantly easy to setup and maintain)

And more importantly, who can help?

Minor rant...

Let me start by saying I'm really enjoying Vista. There are lots of nice touches  that really make it a pleasure to use. (Search built into the Start Menu, the ability to view the calendar by clicking on the clock, and not accidently changing the date, Flip 3D, when I remember it)

But, there are a lot of frustrations that make it a less than perfect experience. Most of them deal with drivers, or third party apps. (Nvidia, installing Adobe Acrobat, iTunes, Soundblaster (drivers still in beta) )

Personally, Apple better fix that problem, they've had plenty of time, and with all their stupid commercials, they should *not* be the blocking issue for a Vista Upgrade.

Most of the other issues are in the same boat, drivers that aren't quite ready, or just not updated, or programs that haven't been updated yet.

But what's wrong with Adobe that you can't install without having to go to the temp folder, and install manually.

Another problem I ran into was with my AverMedia A180 ATSC card, which was the opposite. I had to re-install my Media Center copy of Vista to get things squared away, and it downloaded the Aver drivers from Windows Update. But those drivers are several months old, and superceded by newer drivers that have been out for almost two months now. So the first night after the install, several things didn't record. As soon as I updated the drivers, things have been good. Why weren't they on Windows Update?

Personally, I like Vista, and I'm sure that these problems will settle out, but it's got to be frustrating for a lot of people out there, buying upgrade versions, and hitting all these quirks.

And I know it reflects poorly on MS, even though it isn't really their fault.

End rant.