The Windows Home Server v2 beta is a bit underwhelming.
It’s underwhelming because of the lack of compatible add-ins. Without add-ins, the WHS is simply a file server, a media streamer and a back up server.
I didn’t spend much time with the first two items since my HP MediaVault is already covering them, so I decided to schedule a regular backup of my Steam folder. And after five days of automatic backups, I’m happy to report that it was a seamless experience.
Configuring the backup was extremely easy. By default, WHS covers everything. But since I had only 120 GB of free space on the server, I decided to only cover the Steam folder. I didn’t test the recovery process, but I’m guessing it’ll be easy as pie. I may try to back up my Dell Mini 9’s 16 GB drive and perform a full restore, but I’ll leave that to another weekend.
I only have a couple of complaints with WHS v2. The first is the lack of power options. I can’t seem to find any way to tweak power use easily from the Dashboard. The second is the Dashboard itself. It’s surprisingly slow to load up. It’s a standalone application and it takes a good 30 seconds or so to load up.
The potential in this operating system is there, but I won’t be able to utilize all that potential until we get some real useful add-ins. Hopefully that happens sooner rather than later.
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