14 DAY TRIAL // On February 29th, 2012, Microsoft made available for download the Consumer Preview version of Windows 8 platform, its next generation operating system.
The company has been encouraging its customers to test various features and capabilities that the platform can deliver to them including the capability to connect with Windows Home Server.
For the time being, the feature is meant only for testing purposes, since there are various caveats that will prevent things from running smoothly.
“Windows 8 Consumer Preview has been released, we encourage customers testing the new client platform with Windows Home Server. Note this is for testing purpose only. Installing beta product in a production environment is not recommended or fully supported,” the Redmond-based giant notes.
The company has conducted its own tests to ensure that the two products can work together, and came up with some guidance on the connecting of Windows 8 Consumer Preview (CP) to Windows Home Server.
“Major functionalities work well when Windows 8 Consumer Preview connects with Home Server 2011,” the software giant notes, adding that there are “4 known issues you might experience during Beta testing.”
For example, you will need to enable .Net 3.5 on Windows 8 in order to join Home Server 2011. The company also notes that the power setting of Client backup may not work.
Other issues that will appear include the fact that the thumbnail of picture folder is not displayed properly on Remote Web Access page, and that credentials are required when you try to access the share folders from home group joined client computer. Workaround solutions are available on this page.
Microsoft also notes that there are two issues that will appear when Windows 8 Consumer Preview connects with Home Server (2007 version) during the beta testing.
“When the Windows 8 client computer is connected to Windows Home Server, if you use Windows Live ID to log on, you need to provide additional user credentials for accessing the server resources,” the company describes the first issue.
The software giant also explains that the Windows Home Server Client Connector setup may not install the OEM client software during beta testing. Workarounds for these issues are available in this Wiki.
“We are actively investigating solutions to ensure compatibility between RTM version of Windows 8 client computer and Windows Home Server. If you experience additional issues, please discuss with the community, or file a bug on the connect site,” the company concludes.