Vote for the Features You’d Like to See in Windows Home Server “Vail”

By on January 22, 2010 in WHS v2, Windows Home Server, Windows Home Server Vail

We had such a great response this week to our post about the features you’d like to see in Windows Home Server Codename “Vail”, that I thought we’d have a bit of fun.

One of the comments suggested that we should run a poll so readers can vote for some of the features that were proposed, and that’s such a great idea that we’re doing it.

Now, this is definitely just for fun, but take a look at the (long) list below, and vote for the features you want to see in the next version of Windows Home Server.


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About Terry Walsh

Terry Walsh is the founding editor and owner of We Got Served. Since February 2007, the site has provided detailed coverage and analysis of the emerging home server category, and has subsequently grown into a trusted outlet for digital home news and reviews.
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  • http://intensedebate.com/people/FalconFour FalconFour

    Huh, the results are already pretty surprising! Didn't think so many people would care about D… *scrolls up*… DLNA support. I voted for Server 2008 R2 as a base (for godssake it needs to be brought into NT6.0 at least… MS designed CBS for this, why not make use of it?), 64-bit, native Mac backup, better printer/fax sharing (it's currently a mess that requires use of the base Windows interface in order to accomplish), and remote access via a custom domain.

    Anything hardware related should have been disqualified, IMO (like USB 3.0, SATA 3, HDMI)… those are things the hardware OEMs need to tackle, not Windows…

    • DV-Design

      lol yea right, do you really want to have the nightmare that was installing Windows XP onto a sata drive happen with your server too?

      usb3/sata3 may not be mainstream now, but by years end they are expected to be…WHS2 should support the newest standards like this.

      • http://intensedebate.com/people/FalconFour FalconFour

        I don't even know what you're referring to… what kind of nightmare is installing WinXP on a SATA drive? I work at a PC repair shop; we do that nearly every day. Custom CD I made that comes preloaded with nearly all available storage drivers (even RAID), software, etc.

        It's still beside the point. OEMs are the target market for WHS, not homebrew builders. Homebrewers are on their own, and if they can't figure out how to add controller drivers for device support, that falls squarely on them. Bundled driver support has absolutely zero position on my list of things I want to see in the new version…

        • http://intensedebate.com/people/urmaster urmaster

          Windows XP didn't ship with SATA drivers so it was impossible to install on an SATA drive without blue screening. This was fixed when SP2 was integrated, you could if you had them install the drivers before set-up or slipstream a disc. either way it would be a nightmare for home users.

          • http://intensedebate.com/people/FalconFour FalconFour

            SATA wasn't around when XP was shipping, so of course there's no supporting driver bundled with the OS. Also, it wouldn't "blue screen", it would simply fail to detect the drive controller, and either not detect the disc, or not allow you to continue with no drives. It's also far from "impossible"; that's what that F6 prompt during the first part of setup is for. Load the SATA drivers from a disk.

            Either way, again, it's still beside the point. Home users are going to buy a pre-configured Home Server system from an OEM like HP or Acer. And whatever the base OS supports during Setup, WHS will support. Home users only buy OEM computers as well, and in that regard, XP has been running on SATA drives for years. And I find it quite amateur to comment that native support is better than OEM drivers… the bundled drivers are almost ALWAYS inferior to the most up to date drivers from the OEM. I'd almost be afraid of using a computer you reinstalled Windows on if you believe that…

          • http://intensedebate.com/people/urmaster urmaster

            It would blue screen I assure you, F6 is pre setup like I said.

            OEM is not the only installation route for a Windows Home Server so in this regard native drivers are always better.

  • Ian

    If I could just vote 10 times for Media Center Integration, I'd be happy :)

  • David

    i dont like the way it shows the data….

    it makes % look really low. it should be relative data…. so the highest % the bar should be full….

    Media Center integration and x64……. 2 biggest things, many other that would be nice.

    MC integration would cut my power bill in 1/2
    and x64 would allow more than 3.3gb of RAM…… which would be needed with Media Center integration

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/boggy4062 boggy4062

    This should be a top 3-5 features, otherwise the results will not show a clear winner. Just my 2 cents.

    • bigbunny

      Agreed, I found myself checking over half of the features, and i didn't even bother checking things like "Windows Server 2008 R2" and all the hardware compatibility things, as I am assuming MS isn't stupid and reusing the NT5.2 codebase after…6+ years (depending on how "old" you would judge Server 2003 R2 to be).

      • http://intensedebate.com/people/boggy4062 boggy4062

        bigbunny – Long time ago I stopped treating OS as a religion. If it works, and provides me with a great functionality, I don't care what is under the hood….really.
        For example, I have been observing a great storage appliance Drobo for quite some time now, and never cared about the underlying OS. I can speculate, and maybe would love to see the architecture, but is it something that I cannot live without… nope.
        Same goes for WHS. I am frugal, but did not blink when HP released ex47x servers. I can sleep without worry about my music and picture collection, my tax and other financial documents. Most of things, that I would never be able to recover from, should they be lost due to some kind of disaster.
        I recovered multiple times from XP SP3 upgrades, and it was a non-event because of WHS.

  • JohnCz

    I believe that Live Mesh is being integrated into Live SkyDrive/Sync. These figures should be combined in the final tally.

  • pablo_paul

    MEDIA CENTER

  • zdv

    Are the results OK? The 'winning' feature currently has 6%, everyhting else has up to 5%. I would expect the most popular feature to have over 20%.

    In my opinion, the strikingly absent feature is compatibility with the current version, and upgrade support. That would really count.

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/urmaster urmaster

    Maybe another Poll later with the more popular features?

  • DrewE

    Did most of the voters not know that they could/should make multiple selections?
    As far as having over 8,000 entries NONE of the displayed selections have anything NEAR 1,000 votes.
    I thing you need to do this again and break it down into Hardware and Software, at least.

  • http://www.thenolands.com Chris Noland

    so is the over 2TB drive support the "back door" way to get better raid support? I was surprised this was not in the list (raid) but maybe I am in the minority that thinks DE list like RAID 1 and uses up to much space. I want to use Raid 5 or 6 (hardware raid not software)

    • http://intensedebate.com/people/urmaster urmaster

      I don't understand, how will vail help you with hardware raid?

    • Todd

      Are there that many raid solutions that allow for dynamic expansion and support different drive sizes?

      I have 2 x 1TB, 2 x 1.5TB and 1 x 2TB drives. Raid can't play with that… Hadware RAID for the system drive/partition would be good, but not needed for the data pool.

  • ChazM

    Remote access into all windows clients, not just pro versions.

    This would make it so much easier to remotely sort out problems (virus update issues, backup issues etc) and isn’t “enterprise functionality”

  • Joffa

    Better power management support. Plugin's like LightsOut are an excellent tool but could be made better with better O/S support. Proper support for Suspend mode would not go astray.

    For some reason my server takes longer to Hibernate and then get back out of hibernation then to turn off and back on again.

  • Trogdor

    Pardon my ignorance, but what is silverlight support? Is it integration of some silverlight app onto WHS remote access page or something?
    I come from a mixed Mac/PC household environment. I had to do some tweeking to get Time Machine to work with WHS. It would require cooperation with Apple to get Vail to have Mac support. (I doubt it will happen with this next version though)
    The other thing I voted for was for remote computer backup. I'm away at school and can backup with relative ease since I am on a fast fiber connection and have a VPN all setup. It would be nice to designate a computer as a remote computer and set a less frequent backup schedule since my computer isn't always conected to the internet during backup time.
    Tape drive?…Seriously? I doubt that will happen since I think that feature has been dropped from the windows backup utility.

  • Zeta

    Some sort of parity-based data protection would be great. Duplication with the current DE takes up way too much space for media.

  • Chris

    Ability to upgrade from current WHS without losing data is a requirement. Otherwise, its' kind of pointless for those of us with 5TB+ of data, because there would be nowhere to go. Some of these things don't seem to be optional features, but requirements for it to even be functional.

  • Jon

    One important feature – INCLUDE THE ABILITY TO AUTOMATICALLY BACKUP THE SHARED FOLDERS THAT THE SERVER IS HOSTING. No, I don't mean "Offsite backup". I mean, if I put all of my media files on my server so that I can serve them (God forbid) WHS does not include these folders as part of it's automated backup. Folder duplication is not good enough – the files should be backed up. I don't think most folks understand that the files on their server do not get backed up automatically. Yes, I know I can back them up manually, but the absence of a feature to AUTOMATICALLY back up the server (just like it does your pcs) is a serious product flaw. This should be added to the survey. I am absolutely amazed that I'm the only one who cares about this. I don't get it.

  • sic0048

    #1 requested item for Vail would be backing up the OS drive. I guess I understand why it isn’t included….. I’m just saying…….

  • Yannis

    What do you guys mean with more Media Center Integration?
    Does this include integrated TV tuners that are available to Media Center PC clients via the network? This is the feature I am most looking forward to.
    I'd like to be able to watch freeview DVB-T on my media center PCs without them having to have a TV tuner installed and, when I schedule a recording via their windows media center, the WHS to be the one that will record the show. This is so much more efficient since only the always-on PC will be doing all the recording and none of my other PCs will have to be on to either record the show or transfer it to WHS.

  • Guest

    I would love to see roaming profiles… we have 5 other machines in the house.

  • joit

    I wonder why HDMI out ist currently only at 1 percent. guys, that would be awesome!!! having the media center and the home server in 1 machine that runs 24/7 would make me soooo happy. the media center would need to be very stable, of course. there should not be any reboots required because the media center has crashed…

    • Chris

      I have a HDMI port on my WHS and run XBMC from it. Works great. Don't really understand what the 'HDMI out' request is really asking for

  • Chris

    For me it has to be the ability to run Media Center on WHS because although I run XBMC on my WHS the Media Center to Xbox 360 support would be more than welcome

  • EDubya

    Volume shadow copy, FTW

  • http://www.wiredprairie.us Aaron

    More modern console — web based, using silverlight with an easier plug-in development model. this should be a web application not a remote desktop hack.

  • Sonovi

    I think the questionnaire is poorly designed. If every respondent thought every feature was necessary then there would be no clear “preferred feature". The questionnaire should have asked respondents to select the five (say) features that thy would like to see in the new OS.

  • Sonovi

    Also, it would be more informative if the percentage shown for each feature is the percentage of respondents who voted for the feature. So, for example, if a total of 8,000 respondents participated in the poll and 436 of them voted for “off-site backup” then the percentage of voters who wanted “off-site backup” would be 5.45%

  • Daniel

    Am I the only one who would like to see Hyper-V become a feature of the new WHS? I would love to be able to run some virtual desktops and servers on the WHS.

  • Peter

    ability to record tv with media-center. saves me running a pc with a tv card for video/tv recording.
    integration with windows 7 in all aspects. Also support for all devices which windows7 supports.

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