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Posts tagged WHS
windows home server – a missed opportunity
Sep 14th
When news about a windows home server (WHS) product broke, I was quite excited about the possibility of average homes being able to utilise active directory and group policy in a very user friendly wizard interface in order to bring some control and parental guidance to a home.
However, in their mad paranoia Microsoft seem to be under the impression that WHS would canabalise small business server (SBS) sales without considering that the only reason why a company would buy SBS in the first place is because of exchange – WHS doesn’t have exchange. Also, many small companies prolly pirate their versions of server 2003 standard and exchange 2003 until they can afford to go legit or they stick with just a workgroup and use the email offering from their hosting/isp company.
Yet, with active directory and group policy coupled with an optional extra of ISA locked into web proxy config WHS could provide homes with the ability to control what people can do on their computers as well as provide a means to log what their kids are doing as well as centrally control windows updates as long as it is configurable using really simple and easy to follow wizards for the novices and an advanced mode for those more accustomed to it. Imagine being able to set a log on time window for your kids? Imagine being able to limit the very applications that they can run…
All those who claim that active directory is overkill for a home is looking at it on a enterprise level (yes, they don’t need things such as federation and RAS) without looking at how the basic functionality of AD can add so much to the windows experience. The simple premise of roaming profiles would be immensely handy and is something that apple has actually added to their .mac accounts as of 10.5.. why not use what has been around for nearly a decade now to fight off the threat that apple is posing in the home market!
Active Directory in the home: roaming profiles
Oct 3rd
Posted by alphaxion in commentary
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We all hear plenty of complaints about Windows and how Microsoft has dropped the ball of late; coupled with the traditional bitching over the multitude of flaws in their OS or shit that is just plain missing. But, it’s funny how you never hear anywhere near as many people making suggestions on how to address this!
Something I have mentioned in the past is that active directory has many capabilities that could really improve the home experience. I’ve also pointed out the missed opportunity where MS could have shipped a super wizardised version of active directory with WHS that would have brought many of these great features that I have been using for the past 6 or 7 years now from behind the scenes of an IT department into the home of the average person.
And I really mean super wizardised, of course there can be an advanced mode as well for those who are used to the normal interface and know what they’re doing.
I’ll be randomly highlighting capabilities of AD that I believe could enhance the windows experience and admins have been using to control those pesky users all these years.
This time it’s roaming profiles.
With the release of OSX 10.5, the apple world got a taste of roaming profiles, only it was tethered to the .mac system – which gives the added bonus of it working on any mac with a net connection, a very nice touch but one you have to pay for.
I heard a few people at the time claim that the ability to have your settings travel from one machine to another was “yet more features osx has over windows”.
This is patently untrue – windows has had roaming profiles for a long, long time. Only you would encounter them in a corporate environment rather than in the home.
It’s also quite invisible, unless your IT department decided to not make use of folder redirection and you save everything in your documents folder and the desktop; then you’ll notice it when logging off and logging in as it takes an age to sync your data to or from the server.
In which case, learn basic file management and avoid this by filing away your data instead of splurging it across 15 different locations where 12 of them are copies of the same damn “funny internet pictures and videos” that have been doing the rounds since the dawn of net-time!
Breathe… where was I? Yes.
As homes begin to fill up with different windows based PCs – and there’s nothing stopping MS from building a linux plugin either – the ability to log into any of your machines and your settings move around with you could become an extremely handy feature and it’s about time it moved into the home too.
And it’s easy to make a distinction between a laptop and a desktop within AD, so the desktops can make use of folder redirection to keep your docs on the WHS, reducing logon times and making sure your important docs get backed up! Laptops can then be set up to save a local copy of your files so you’re not tethered to your local network, but your changes get sync’d when you are.
Tell me that’s not a great way of improving the user experience for those encumbered with windows!
And all this technology already exists! The only problem is with the totally retarded decision by microsoft to remove the AD joining capabilities from their windows crippled home versions. Which means an AD bolt-on pack would be needed for those without the “real” versions of windows.