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  • Improved searching of Windows Servers (2003, 2008, SBS, Windows Home Server) and Windows desktops (Vista and XP) through the Windows Search 4.0 Preview which improves local and network searching

    There is a feature that I 1st found of Windows Home Server that can be applied to SBS, Windows Server, Windows Vista / XP and any other Windows system with Windows Search 3 or 4 on it. This feature is the ability to search the other machine’s index rather than the files, meaning that you can go to a file share and search 100s of GBs of files in a couple of seconds simply by using the Vista search box. The Search V4 Preview extends this ability to more versions of Windows. That is not all it does – see the note from the Windows Vista Team Blog : Announcing the Windows Search 4.0 Preview that has some information: Windows Search 4.0 introduces several improvements I'd like to call out making search even better in Windows Vista: With Windows Search 4.0, the Windows Search Team has fixed most of the reported bugs causing a majority of distractions users have seen since Windows Vista RTM - many of those bugs were reported by you. Great improvements have been made with regards to performance .Even now as Preview...
  • Fixing the last 2 problems with my Search Server Express - DCOM error 10016 (application settings do not grant Activation Permission form COM) and Gather warning 2436 for Search Services on my home server

    Obviously when I wrote the last blog entry on installing search server , not quite everything was working, although I did not realise it until a few errors appeared in the event log. The errors appear below - one is a DCOM permissions error and the other is a Gather error. The DCOM error Event Type: Error Event Source: DCOM Event Category: None Event ID: 10016 Date: 09/11/2007 Time: 06:35:26 User: NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE Computer: HOMESERVER Description: The application-specific permission settings do not grant Local Activation permission for the COM Server application with CLSID {61738644-F196-11D0-9953-00C04FD919C1} to the user NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE SID (S-1-5-20). This security permission can be modified using the Component Services administrative tool. For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp. Fixing the DCOM error is all about setting permissions in the DCOM system. The magical application was IIS WAMREG admin Service. I worked this out by...
  • How to install Microsoft Search Server 2008 Express - including how to install on Windows Home Server

    I wrote about the search products the other day, but I then decided to take it for a spin. The easiest server for me to install on was a Windows Home Server, so here is the process. Download the software and run the setup program and run the preparation tool: Now run the installation tool. For me, I don't want much installed on the C drive, but I do have some drives known as E and F. Once this is done, now go via the web to configure it. I asked for it to crawl my file shares, web sites and more I then did a test search and it all worked :-) Now, when I went back to the WHS sites, things were not so good. I discovered that the new site that Search Express clashed. There was 2 things I needed to do. One was to change the host header for the search site so that it did not clash with the default site. This is done in IIS admin and if you need instructions on how to do this, just drop a comment for me to know. Anyway, do this, but that was not enough. It enabled the default web site to start, but now search was...
  • Home Servers that will be look cool in the home and pass the dreaded "partner" test

    I have a Media Center, Home Server, Xbox, Xbox 360, SBS and other machines in my house. The under TV box hides the Xbox and Media Center, the 360 is in the bedroom and the home server (& SBS box) are in the study. I learnt a long time ago that IF I wanted something like Home Server in the living space I needed it to look good. This is one example of what looking cool might be. There is obviously much more to Home Server, so visit the blog if this is a new area for you. More Hockey Puck Photos Heh. Joel just sent me a couple more pics of the "hockey puck". This thing is so amazingly cool that I just have to rant some more about it. First, we commissioned Carbon Design , a local design firm, to dream up some really cool home server form factors about 2 years ago. After a couple of iterations we narrowed it down to 3 ideas: the cube, the slate, and the hockey puck. Carbon built us a few foam models of each of these as well as a bunch of cool looking renderings. These served us well for while as tools...
  • Microsoft announces Home Server - ever want something like SBS, but targeted at home users with home user functionality (i.e. no Exchange, but wizards and tools around storage and media, sharing etc)

    Finally Microsoft will deliver you a server that sits at home, is ideally suited for everyone in the house to use. It could even find itself into really small businesses in combination with Offie Live (backup and central monitoring provided by Home Server and e-mail, calendar, domain etc provided by Live). So what is it, well, think SBS, remove Exchange, SQL and ISA, update the wizards and remote access to be applicable for data sharing and a home network (but still keep them), then add some cool features like adding new disks the existing sharing volumes so exapansion is simply slotting in a new disk. This is Quattro, or Q or Home Server and the beta is coming soon too!! As is always, several people already blogged on it and gave some great links, but go check out the following: The Press Release Susan bradley's tour de force and more Official SBS, Centro & Home Server Blog 2nd Blog Susanne's hardware find and link to the marketing site and finally, even Vlad wanted one !! Now there are a few people who say...

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