Windows Home Server is a great piece of software. It has had its setbacks, but as a 1st generation server OS for home use, Microsoft has developed a piece of software that goes along way toward “connecting” the home. In an effort to keep the average home user protected from the OS, or perhaps to protect the OS from the average home user, Microsoft designed the WHS Console to be used to manage Windows Home Server. Everything is there (OK most everything) to connect and manage those client computers that are connected to the WHS.
Many of the add-ins that have been developed for WHS attempt to extend the console in an effort to provide the user with the ability to interact with the OS through the console. Such as Event Viewer, the add-in I am looking at today. If you use a RDC, or log into WHS directly, many of these add-ins are duplicates of existing ways to access the underlying features of WHS. Perhaps one can consider some of these add-ins shortcuts.
What is Event Viewer? It is a simple add-in to allow the user to access OS events in the Windows 2003 Server Event Viewer. This viewer, accessible from the Control Panel, is shown below.
So, back to Event Viewer. Installing the add-in is as simple as any other add-in. Copy this msi installer to your D:SoftwareAdd-ins folder, open the WHS Setting Window in the console and install the software from the Add-ins tab, as shown below.
Once it has installed, reopen the console and click on the Event Viewer tab.
You will immediately see a list of events that Windows 2003 Server kernel records. Exciting stuff there!
You can change the type of event viewed by clicking on the Application entry on the top menu bar. These various Application views are shown below.
If you click on the the Filter Menu option, you can change the type of information shown. The picture below shows System Warnings.
When you highlight an entry, you can read the associated event message at the bottom of the Console window, as can be seen above.
If you so desire, you can clear all Events stored in the OS database by clicking on the Clear All menu item. You will get the obligatory “are you sure” warning, which as always, is a good thing to have.
And that is about all there is. When using the WHS Console, this add-in gives you a quick shortcut to the OS Event Viewer. It does exactly what it is meant to do. If you need to see what is happening behind the scenes, this add-in can get you there. But, in the end, how useful is it? That is up to you, the user, to decide.
Author: Benjamin Robichaud
Version Reviewed: 1.1
Release: 25Jul2008
