Windows Home Server (WHS) is all about making the day to day care of your home network easy. When you install the WHS Connector Software on a client PC everything is set-up to automatically back up that machine each and every night. There is usually no further intervention required.
However, if you’re the type who likes the idea of managing all of your home computers on your network from one location then ASoft’s Autoexit 2008 might be for you. The everyday user of WHS will not need the functions provided by Autoexit 2008 because this is an add-in that provides advanced options such as remotely shutting down, restarting and waking up networked computers attached to your WHS. If your computers are all in the same room this add-in may not be as handy since it is just as easy to walk over to the machine. However, if you have computers in the kids room, living room and den then it might save you from walking around the house to simply restart a computer.
Installation is very straight forward like most add-ins for WHS. Download the installation file from the ASoft website and store it on your WHS at the following location: \\yourhomeservername\Software\Add-Ins\
You will now need to log into your home server using your WHS Console and install the add-in:
After the installation completes you will be prompted to restart the WHS Console.
The above procedures are standard for installing any add-ins to Windows Home Server and it will quickly become second nature.
When you open back up the WHS Console you will find a new tab installed called ASoft AutoExit. When you click on that tab you will find all of your home computers listed.
Configuring AutoExit
There is only a couple of settings that need to be sorted out once the add-in is installed. First click on the Settings menu item below the list of tabs on your WHS Console. The following dialog box will open up:
Here you can customize the message that is sent to the screen of the computer you are shutting down to warn the user so they can save any work in progress. I recommend you give them 60 seconds because this will allow the user plenty of time to shut down any running programs and save important files. How upset would you be if you suddenly got shut down or rebooted without any warning? Exactly – that is why you give them plenty of time.
The other setting is highlighted on ASoft Autoexit 2008’s webpage and it appears it may be an issue for some but not all users.
This is a quote directly from their page:
Problems shutting down/rebooting -Make sure that the user account you are using on the Home Server Console and that is initiating the shutdown must be listed in the “Administrators” local group of your client machine. You should make sure that the user account you are using on the Windows Home Server Console has administrator privileges over the client machine. To do this, launch the Account Manager on the client machine and make sure that the “Administrators” group includes the user name of the user on the Windows Home Server Console.
OK – that sounds great – how do I do it? Good question. This requires a little bit of delving into advanced settings on your home computer but is very simple to do.
- Start off by hitting your Windows key and R and type in “mmc” without the quotes.
- Hit RETURN and this will start the Microsoft Management Console.
- Grant permission for the application to run (UAC prompt will come up) and then once the MMC is open on your desktop type CTRL and M to open up the Add/Remove Snap-In dialog and select the Computer Management snap-in (highlighted in the screen shot below).
- Choose Add, then OK.
- Click Finish on the dialog that pops up and then OK to close the Add/Remove Snap-In dialog box.
- Double click your freshly installed Computer Management Snap-In
- Double click System Tools
- Double click Local Users and Groups
- Double click Groups and finally double click Administrators.
- You now get a dialog box to configure the members of the Administrators group on your computer.
If your user name appears in the dialog box as mine does above then your OK. Click OK to exit this dialog box and close out of the MMC. You should be ready to go. If for some reason your not listed then click the Add button to get this dialog box:
Type your complete user name in the dialog box and select Check Names to match it up. Hit OK twice and then you can close the MMC.
Wow – a lot of steps to make sure your good to go. ASoft will hopefully work on this into a future release so end users do not need to go through these steps. I am not familiar with the SDK for WHS but I am sure there must be some way to get this add-in to work without these extra steps. You should not have to be doing this.
So now you’re all set up and ready to use your newly installed functionality in the WHS Console.
To use AutoExit just right click on the home computer you want to interact with and a context menu will pop up offering several choices which are mostly self explanatory.
Shut Down – Turns the computer off.
Reboot – Restarts the computer.
Cancel – Cancels the last action. If you requested a Shut Down and you cancel it before the default timeout then it will stop. This also sends a notification to the remote machine.
Remote Desktop – access the client machine using the Remote Desktop protocol via the WHS Console.
Send Message – This should send a message the remote machine however, I am unable to get this to work myself. I get an error code of 2273. This happens because the Messenger Service is not running on my machines which is a default setting for Vista installation for security reasons.
Remote Desktop Server – Use the Remote Desktop Protocol to access your Windows Home Server from the console. This allows you to control the server as if you were using it directly.
Wake On Lan – This will allow you to wake up the remote machine. You must set the network card in the client machine to allow it to be turned on via this protocol. Check in the connection properties on the client machine.(*)
Shut Down All – This will shut down all of your home computers attached to the WHS.
*To do this just open up the Vista Network and Sharing Center by clicking on your network connection in the system tray then under Tasks select Manage Network Connections. Right click on your LAN connection and select Properties. A UAC will pop up so grant permission to gain access to the property tab for the connection. The click on Configure for your adapter and click on the Power Management tab:
Make sure the Allow this device to wake the computer is selected. You can now say OK and close the properties dialog.
In closing, this is certainly a handy add-in that provides advanced functionality which is not native to the WHS Console so that part is good. However, the extra step of going into the MMC to make sure your user is in the Administrator group should be taken care of by the developer – if they can make these features work without that being necessary then this would be an even better add-in.
17. January 2008 at 8:23 am
It a network become a little bigger it could be also useful RSHUT Pro (www.rshut.com) utility to manage remote computers over LAN, shutdown and wake up them.
17. January 2008 at 9:44 am
I saw that they also have a well known tool for the desktop, also called AutoExit.
It is uptodate (in comparison to many other tools in that category) and it seems to be able to do all that stuff also. (remote shutdown, timed,…)
Although I guess that many home networks won’t need it and have enough functionality with AutoExit for WHS.
17. January 2008 at 9:58 am
And one important thing I forgot to mention: It’s free
You have to register, but it is free.
17. January 2008 at 3:10 pm
A comparison wth Evangelos Hadjichristodoulou’s Wake on Lan Add-in would have be useful.
17. January 2008 at 3:47 pm
VSB – that is an excellent point and the Wake in Lan Add-In is one we will be reviewing as we work through all of them. Thanks for the great feedback.
31. January 2008 at 2:08 pm
Just FYI, there is a command line tool that comes with Windows called ’shutdown’ which does the same thing. I assume Autoexit just calls this program or uses the same APIs.
17. February 2008 at 6:25 pm
Does any one know if autoexit will be adding hibernate or sleep functionality?
thanks
19. February 2008 at 12:24 pm
I’ve mailed them about this and they are indeed planning this.
I don’t know for sure but I think it will be for the next version.
24. February 2008 at 10:15 pm
Welcome to my on-line chemist’s shop.
Welcome: you are welcome!
http://darkmist.tut.su
6. March 2008 at 1:19 am
This seem very handy but does not apply to Vista Premium Home Edition unfortunately, as you can’t add the user group so it shoud say you need ultimate or pro version to make this work.
21. March 2008 at 4:23 pm
I’m not able to make it work. Pls help me
2. May 2008 at 9:57 pm
Since I updated my XP machines with SP3, I can only get this to wake my machines. They will not shut down or reboot. I loved it when it was working for me. Any suggestions?
5. May 2008 at 10:33 pm
I like the add-in and use it relatively often. The one feature I couldn’t get to work was WOL but I’m convinced that without buying new “certified WOL” NICs that’s to be expected. Nevertheless, there is still a lot in Autoexit (and the price is right!) Thanks!
6. May 2008 at 7:10 pm
I got it figure out (my inability to shutdown remotely).
Here’s what worked for me.
Click “Start>Settings>Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Local Security Policy>Local Policy”. Highlight the Security Options item in the left pane. In the right pane, locate the item titled “Network access: Sharing and security model for local accounts.” The default option for this is the “Guest only – local users authenticate as Guest.” Switch this option to the “Classic – local users authenticate as themselves.” Thus you can log on remotely as a member of administrators group to shut down this computer by using Remote Shutdown.
I had contacted the ASoft Support team and they were very responsive. They didn’t have the solution, but given enough time, I am sure they would have be able to resolve this issue. I located the solution at http://www.hainsoft.com/en/faq.htm#7. Got to give credit where credit is due.
Thanks ASoft for a great add-on and especially for your quick response to me. That’s often a rare quality for many application vendors, especially for apps that are FREE!
6. May 2008 at 7:20 pm
See, what did I tell you. They did find the solution (just a few minutes after I found it somewhere else. This is what they sent me. It’s good reading for anyone using this add-on.
http://www.daniweb.com/forums/thread17007.html
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=300058
23. June 2008 at 5:35 pm
I couldnt get it to work either. Free is when you pay for what you get…nothin. Ive checked the policy in the post above, Ive checked this…
Problems shutting down/rebooting -Make sure that the user account you are using on the Home Server Console and that is initiating the shutdown must be listed in the “Administrators” local group of your client machine. You should make sure that the user account you are using on the Windows Home Server Console has administrator privileges over the client machine. To do this, launch the Account Manager on the client machine and make sure that the “Administrators” group includes the user name of the user on the Windows Home Server Console.
That aint it either. Ive enabled remote in the firewall….im at wits end. The product just doesnt work.
23. June 2008 at 7:46 pm
I haven’t had any problems, worked perfect the first time.
Do you have a home edition?
PS: Their new version should be released shortly too, maybe that one will work for you. I think it was next month or so.
23. June 2008 at 9:42 pm
I have 2 ultimate editions, 1 home, and 1 xp
28. June 2008 at 8:10 pm
Hi Robert,
You may have seen it already but the new version is out, just give it a try. It’s really cool!
You can also find a review on this site and they did a show on the homeserver show too.