With 2011, you get full support for windows on your desktop connected remotely.

This allows you to have no login on your desktop PC while maintaining secure access to the server.Įasier server management: Managing the first WHS wasn't especially difficult, but you always had to work through a single, modal screen. WHS 2011 uses an external application, the Dashboard, to separate PC logins from Windows Home Server logins. But setting up that arrangement on multiple PCs was tedious and created a security risk.

You could make things easier by using the same characters for your system login and for your account login on the server, and then enabling auto-logon on your PC. You can have read access, full access, or no access.Įasier login management: Logging in to the first release of WHS was something of a chore. The only drawback is that there's setting up shares in this way results in a little granularity. Windows 7 HomeGroups: You can add a WHS 2011 box to your HomeGroup, which makes sharing files and printers much easier. But those aren't needed any longer (though some may have additional features beyond those in WHS 2011.) The original WHS didn't have this capability built-in, so various media server plug-ins were among the most popular WHS plug-ins available. As more HDTVs, A/V receivers, and other similar home electronic devices ship with built-in DLNA client capability, combining a robust media server and a robust PC server in one box becomes increasingly useful. It's now a DLNA 1.5-compliant server, meaning that DLNA-capable client devices can connect to a WHS system set up as a media server. Eventually, interesting plugins became available - like Servio, which enabled WHS to be a better media server.īetter media server: Windows Home Server 2011 has robust media transcoding and streaming capabilities, and it supports a wide range of codecs - AAC, AVCHD, DivX, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, WMV, and more. That first Home Server wasn't very suitable for running apps remotely. In fact, some retail WHS boxes shipped with as little as 512MB of RAM, and 1GB was the norm. With the original WHS, having a lot of RAM wasn't particularly useful.

Windows home server 2011