I’ve just uploaded the latest version of Whiist, v0.76. This is basically the version that I submitted for Microsoft’s Code2Fame challenge but fixes a bug where new Photo Albums would always be linked on your Windows Home Server homepage.
Speaking of which, I thought I’d post the video I put together for my Code2Fame entry. I had to cut out a lot to fit into the required five minutes, so when I get time I’m planning make a couple of “How To” videos from the footage.
For the adventurous (and Windows Home Server-owning) types amongst you there a link at the bottom of this post to a pre-release of the next version of Whiist.
Because this version features a lot of changes I’m going to wait a few days until I’m sure there are no obvious bugs lurking before I update the main page. I’m pretty sure this version is already good to go, but Whiist now has a lot of users so I figure I should be a little cautious before unleashing anything too drastic 
After my previous post, showing how to use Whiist to quickly create photo albums on a Windows Home Server, a number of people asked for an article showing similar steps for creating regular websites that either they or family members can use.
This post will show you those steps and explain a little more about some of the options in Whiist, the files that compose your website, and how IIS (the webserver in Windows Home Server) deals with documents.
In this example I’m going to create a new website for my girlfriend. As part of her PhD program she teaches classes at UCLA and often has supporting materials to hand out to her class.
Having a website on our Windows Home Server will be an easy way she can make these materials accessible to students who missed class or need another copy. Not only does she simply have to copy the files onto the server from her laptop, but she can use one of the many programs that support HTML to edit the main page without having to worry about FTP.
So, here are the steps I took to create this new website
I’ve just uploaded the latest version of Whiist, version 0.6.
Most of the changes in this version are related to improving the current functionality and interface, though there are a few new bits.
From the changelog:
Enjoy!
Update: Comments are now closed. Please direct Whiist related comments to the forums
As is being widely reported Windows Home Server RC1 has been released and is now available to the general public.
Unfortunately for people who’ve been running the beta/CTP releases it requires a clean-install. Temporarily moving 600GB of data to external drives and PCs, then back again, wasn’t a particularly fun experience but a couple of overnight robocopy sessions did the trick.
Apart from a noticeably better installation process RC1 seems to be nearly visually identical to the CTP. As you’d expect the more obvious bugs are gone, but all in all there’s little that I can see in terms of added functionality.
Unfortunately RC1 came at a slightly inopportune time regarding Whiist. I believe the current version of Whiist won’t install on RC1, and a rewrite of several areas coupled with a busy Real Life™ has meant I haven’t been able to roll out an update as quickly as I’d have liked.
An updated version should be available sometime today or tomorrow.
One of the great things about Windows Home server is the potential for easily sharing photos and files with your family and friends. In this simple example I’ll show how by using Whiist you can create a new photo album on your Windows Home Server in just a few minutes.
Over Thanksgiving Liz and I took a lot of pictures we wanted to send to my family back in the. Previously I would have used a service such as Flickr, but this time I’m going to use Windows Home Server and Whiist.
Here are the steps I took, with some helpful screenshots
As mentioned in previous posts I’m a big fan of Windows Home Server, and since the release of the SDK I’ve been busy creating an Add-In during my spare time.
I’ve been using this Add-In for a few weeks but I feel it’s now ready to be unleashed upon the unsuspecting public
So I present to you….
Whiist – Windows Home IIs Toolkit
Whiist is a free Windows Home Server Add-In that allows management of websites and links on your home server.
Once installed Whiist adds Website Management options to your Windows Home Server Console, allowing you to easily create new links or websites in a few simple steps.
You can read more, view screenshots, and download the latest version of Whiist from its new page here.
Update: Comments are now closed. Please direct Whiist related comments to the forums
Because installing Windows Home Server is largely an automated process this post is going to be longer than it really needs to be. Instead of describing the process in detail I’ll mention a few tips I discovered, as well as answers to certain questions I had about Windows Home Server.
Also, while it can seem intimidating building a PC from components is actually pretty easy. Modern hardware is designed so there are few cables that can be inserted into the wrong slot or upside down!
For Windows Home Server there are a few important BIOS options to be aware of though. Firstly ensure all options related to RAID are turned off. Secondly, make sure the amount of memory reserved for any onboard graphics chip is set to the minimum amount possible. 128Mb may be a fine choice for a desktop system, but it’s total overkill for a machine that will be running headless!
Lastly, unless you have a PS2 keyboard make sure USB keyboard support is enabled. On many motherboards the keyboard will work in the BIOS menu without this setting, but you won’t be able to press a key when prompted to boot from disc! I, of course, have never made this mistake, nor have I subsequently spent 10 minutes burning new discs when they failed to boot. Ahem.
Anyway, onto the actual install..
According to statistics one in five PCs will suffer a fatal hard drive failure in their lifetime. Last week our Media Center was one of them.
Fortunately it was the disk containing the OS and not the larger disk that holds all of our media. And while it did take 6-7 hours to reinstall and set everything up again, it would have been far more painful had it been my main PC or my girlfriend’s laptop. With those machines there’s also a pretty good chance we’d have lost something more important than just our TV recording schedule.
Before now my backup strategy was to keep mirrored copies of important files on seperate computers via FolderShare. This prevented us from losing our documents, photos or music, but it didn’t guard against disk failure or an accidental overwrite. I thought it best to take the Media Center failure as a warning shot from fate and move to a better backup strategy.
Enter Windows Home Server.
I received an invite to the Windows Home Server beta a few weeks ago so now seemed like the perfect time to try it out. My aim was to build a WHS machine that would run nightly backups of our three machines, and act as a centralized storage location for all of our media and some large datasets that I use for work.
Over the next week or so I’m going to write about actually setting up and configuring the machine, using it to backup our PCs (including my girlfriends Mac), and integrating the shared media with our Media Center PC.
However this first post is about choosing the best hardware configuration for Windows Home Server, something I spent considerable time researching.
