Usernames and Passwords in Windows Home Server

Now that Windows Home Server beta 2 is widely available to beta testers, Microsoft has shipped in excess of 25,000 invitations. The team behind the product revealed a few details related to the username and password options available with the product. Windows Home Server is designed to be at the core of the home network, and in this regard, it was built in order to integrate the user accounts on the Windows machines in the household.

"Windows Home Server enables you to define 10 users in the Windows Home Server Console. These users can be granted permissions (Read/Write, Read/Only and No Access) to the Shared Folders on your home server. Additionally, you can decide which of these users can remotely login to the home server if you enable remote access to your home server," explained Todd Headrick, the product planner for Windows Home Server.

In this context, the home server should have the same usernames and passwords that the users on the PCs in the household have. Microsoft has built synchronization capabilities into Windows Home Server that will keep your accounts on the server in concert with those on the computers.

"There are a few missing pieces to Windows Home Server Beta 2, in that we have heard that a few people would like to set a default password policy - eg. either "Simple" or "Complex" with a 3rd setting somewhere in the middle. "Simple" probably means just that - either no password is required or perhaps the minimum is a single character," Headrick added.

The only downside to this is the fact that when users configure Windows Home Server they will have to take into account the user accounts on the PCs of the home network.