Windows Home Server won't launch on August 27

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WHS Not ready for ANY RELEASE DATE.: I tested RC1 Windows Home Server and found that it was a sloppy piece of Windows 2003 Server cut and pasting.

0) None of the install screens were anywhere near ready for user installs. Half of them were 50% gray and the other half would would tell you it was Windows Server 2003 first that you were installing, then Small Business Server 2005(?), then it would tell you it was Windows Home Server Beta 1 or maybe RC1.
1) It was not obvious at all if a "slipstream" or sysprep sort of installation could be successfully scripted for the software packages that were obviously slap-dashed together.
2) A number of Administration modules in Control Panel either didn't work or were faulty when they did.
3) User names and password policy requires either resetting all the easy passwords to allow external logon or forgoing having the users have external access on the same user account.
4) I never managed to get the system restore or backup functions to work at all. Even when I corrected the errors it reported on my Windows XP Pro SP2+ system, that BTW reported it had no errors.
5) The WHS Connector module that you are required to install on your XP Pro desktop evidently could not find my PCI Bus IDE hard drives on the Promise Technology TX2000+ controller that were configured to run as independent ATA-IDE drives, even when I had the correct and most up-to-date driver installed. It would tell me the drives were there but couldn't back them up or even ID them by drive letter. I found that adding a logon script to set a drive letter to the share on the server would allow access on an XP Pro system similar to the WHS but a heck of a lot easier to administer.
6) What idiot at Microsoft thinks that FAT and FAT32 drives should NOT be backed up?
7) What idiot at Microsoft thinks that NOT including the default SVGA and XVGA video drivers is appropriate on a system that might require some hardware maintenance that is NOT supported in the idiot User Web Interface?
8) What idiot at Microsoft thinks that including ONLY ONE Nic driver for a RealTek 8169 chipset is an appropriate way to setup a Network FILE SERVER?
9) What idiot at Microsoft thinks that including only 10 USER ACCOUNTS is an appropriate number of accounts for a system that might be used by a family of more than 10 individuals, one or two of which might want to have TWO accounts so he could run one in User and the other as ADMIN?
10) What idiot at Microsoft thinks that it might NOT be nice to allow Users to log onto the NETWORK system using VPN and IPSEC which used to require DOMAIN logon to allow connections to systems other than the gateway? (This was one of those options in MMC that looked like it was still there but it didn't work.)
11) What idiot at Microsoft decided to send the RC1 system configuration out such that the outgoing firewall settings were wide open? (And IP Bridging between two NICs, One on the Internet, was still available as a option to turn on and GUESS WHAT? It worked!)
12) What idiot at Microsoft decided to disenfranchise all of their system owners that still are using Win9X, Win2K or NT 4.0 clients? Yes there are likely ways around it but good grief the product could be expanded WITHOUT doing anything that would harm the security model of the d--- Server! You're using WORKGROUP security Microsoft, not AD Domain, or Radius security!

13) I never put the system on the Internet. I decided that because it looked and acted like the biggest freaking security nightmare I have ever seen, I would not attempt to test its remote log-on capability. I do have systems on my DSL connection that I'd like to keep virus and worm free.

14) Did I report this to Microsoft? No. Was there a mechanism to do the reporting? I'm not sure. I never did find anything other than sales pitches at all of the websites that were plugged with URLs on all the "help" screens tacked onto the system.

15) Would I buy this product? Not till they start selling lift tickets in Hell.; Posted by: Xwindowsjunkie Posted on: 08/19/07 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use