Advanced Admin Console scooped last year’s WGS Readers Award for Best Windows Home Server add-in. It’s targeted at users with technical knowledge who wish to enable more advanced administration features in the Windows Home Server Console (now renamed Dashboard in Vail and Aurora).
The add-in’s developer, Andreas Miceli has been hard at work over the last few months developing a version of the add-in for Windows Home Server Vail and Windows Server Aurora. The results of his labour will shortly be revealed to the public, but not before a private beta is announced this week. The good news is that we can give you a preview of how the new version works.
The new add-in installs with two sub-tabs, offering Explorer and Browser views. The Explorer tab provides basic Windows Explorer features for your server’s drives including file and folder exploration, cut, copy and paste functions and more. A Server Administration pane to the right allows fast access to the Server Manager, Administrator Tools, Control Panel and other advanced administration areas of the server.
The second sub-tab, Browser, integrates a basic implementation of Internet Explorer into the Dashboard, allowing access to your router controls and NAS devices on the network that require a web browser to manage. Full web browser controls are available in the command bar, including the use of Favourites, which are exposed in the add-in’s task panel. .
Favourites can be very easily managed within the add-in, with the ability to create, organise and delete browser bookmarks using the command bar and associated wizards.
Whilst the UI looks complete, there are still a number of known issues and additional features that remain to be implemented, including:
- Full Favorite integration with the Windows shell/Internet Explorer
- Changes to Favorites should automatically be reflected by the Favorite tree on the Favorite tab. This should work, no matter which way is used to modify a Favorite.
- Favorite context menu: Rename
- Favorite context menu: Delete
- User view preferences should be implicitly saved and restored in a subsequent Dashboard session: Task panel visibility, splitter position, web browser alert setting.
However, the new version of Advanced Administration Console looks like it’s going to be a winner. Stay tuned for more news on the private beta, and subsequent release.
Update: Head over to Andreas’ website to sign up for the beta.
