MS killing off WHS

There is another thread already on this.

Again, Windows is not "killing off" anything. They are not developing it any more (just like Win7). It will still be available as OEM --- which is what Newegg sells --- until 2025. So its not going anywhere.

Its still a fantastic option.

Microsoft is replacing it with Windows Server Essentials. They are stopping replication of Windows Home Server OEM system builder discs (what Newegg sells and what you are talking about) and they will only be offering the software as an OEM licensed version (different product than the one Newegg sells) for specialized server systems.

Not until 2014 which is forever in software/tech. And even then we can probably still get the OEM until 2025.

Getting it and activating it could be two different stories.

Well point me to where Microsoft has said they will not activate it and I will also be worried.

BTW you can still buy Vista and even XP and I haven't heard of any issues with activation.

Speculation is very dangerous and frankly drives me crazy.

Hrm, that made me think about the XP.

Will MSFT stop activating fresh XP installs once they stop supporting it? I still have a few copies of sealed XP MCE discs... They are probably useless now, just like the stack of 11 floppies with Win 3.11...

You still have Win 3.11 floppies... I love that. I remember playing MS Golf ("Get there!") for hours on there!

I still have a 3½" drive in my PC "just in case".

Well I hate seeing that line go away. I'm happily using WHS 2011 now and I plan to lean on it for quite some time.


My guess is that MS knows that most will not migrate to a $400 server software like 2012 Essentials. Its pretty obvious that the pricing is out of range for many that bought the dirt cheap WHS. Its more likely that they expect many to try Win 8.

Ive been looking to Win 8 as my next step years down the road. It retains many of the features I wanted in a new version of WHS anyway. Storage Spaces is a great asset especially. It doesn't have quite as robust of a backup system as WHS, but that may be supplemented by third parties. Ill be evaluating Win 8 for a while though before making that decision, so alot can happen.

Its no more dead than Windows 7. I haven't seen people running for the hills because Win8 is coming out so I guess I just don't get the sense of doom that some of you have. I think dead is way too strong a word.

Windows XP is ten years old and MS still offers support for it, WHS 2011 will be supported for a long time, so no, it`s not a dead product as long as you can still activate it and get support for it. I feel the frustration on future WHS owners, who might want to buy it but can`t after 2013, but i don`t see how this is a problem for those that already own a copy.

WHS has been great for me, but I can't see many average windows users successfully installing/connecting it. I think the BestBuys of the world will have a lot of profit to make off of in home install/setup of Pre-built WHS if the Surface/WinPhone take off in a way that people circle back to the idea of a server.

Your other options are: Linux and Apple. I don't think MS can ignore the money Apple is reaping massive commission profits by selling/renting TV shows, movies, and games to everyone. If you were to use all apple products in your house, they would all work within a centralized/managed environment that you don't have to think about. And Apple laughs all the way to the bank with the amount of money they're poised to make this way. It's hard to imagine windows not trying to emerge the zune/xbox marketplace stuff into windows and get a share of the pie
Should be good for the $40 Win8 Pro upgrade according to Microsoft's press release. For an upgrade to "legally" register itself, you need a valid XP, Vista, or 7 license

Yes, you're right, it's not dead - but over time, its limitations will become more pressing until a threshold is reached, and a replacement is actively sought. When this threshold occurs will vary between users.

For me, the biggest limitation is that WHS does not support backup/restore of client PCs that use EFI/GPT technology. At the moment, that doesn't worry me, because all my current hardware uses discs with MBR. However, if I invest in new hardware (a PC or a Tablet), it will almost certainly be based on EFI/GPT, so I won't be able to back it up using WHS.

Windows 8 comes with a new method of file backup. Unfortunately, it has its own limitations, and I think WHS has a more elegant backup solution for client PCs.

If Windows 7 Home Premium let you backup to a network drive, I probably would have just used that and gone with Amahi or some other Linux-based server. It's so STOOPID that you need to get Win7 Pro for that feature.

Image backup to a network share is still crippled in Pro/Ultimate. You can't save multiple incremental backups as you can to local storage. So unless a single "latest greatest" snapshot is a good enough backup scheme, you're not really missing anything.

I think the ticket is to setup an iSCSI target on your server for each client for their own backups. Then the backup drive appears as a local hard drive to the client and you can then have multiple backups over time. With some work, you can probably even get it to run as a scheduled task automatically. Optionally, the VHDs backing the iSCSI targets could be on a de-duplicated volume (Server 2012), which would save significant space much like WHS 2011 already does for client backups.

BTW, the old Win7 image backup functionality is still present in Win8. You have to search for "Windows 7 Recovery" in control panel (thanks for making this easy to find Microsoft... that is just some wonderful naming there... sheesh).

Windows image backup is a little weak in that it doesn't seem to allow custom exclusions. Not exactly easy like WHS 2011 backup is, but there would be some advantages. In particular, restore could be easier in cases where it is difficult to get the restore process to initiate a network connection (consider an ultrabook with no ethernet). In that case, you'd be able to simply copy the backup from the VHD to a USB hard drive and do a completely "local" restore.

But still, if Server 2012 Essentials comes with Client Backup (like WHS 2011), it is probably easier to just use that. The question is price... but then again there is always TechNet. At least I always feel like I'm constantly "testing" Microsoft's stuff.