bizmodeller blog

Support for Windows 8 and Windows Server Essentials 2012

Filed under iHomeServer 2 , Windows Home Server , Windows 8

Just a quick post to let you all know that we are actively working on some exciting developments and approximate timescales for up and coming releases. Those of you who have used Windows Home Server as your server platform will no doubt have heard the news that Microsoft is ending the Windows Home Server line and instead replacing it with Windows Home Server 2012 Essentials at a much higher price.  Many users will likely migrate over to Windows 8 instead due to its significantly cheaper price point. Fortunately, iHomeServer is now supported under Windows 8 and provides an excellent platform upon which to run a standalone headless instance of iTunes on a Windows 8 based desktop or home server.  The latest version of iHomeServer (2.2.23.0 at time of writing) installs as a desktop app on Windows 8.  For those of you who have used Windows Home Server previously, the iHomeServer tabs you see in the Windows Home Server Dashboard are available under Windows 8 in a dedicate... [More]

iHomeServer Pre-Release Available 2.2.1.0 - internet metadata tagging, interactive iTunes launching, faster start-up time

Filed under iHomeServer 2 , iTunes , Metadata , Windows Home Server

The next major release of iHomeServer is now in feature-freeze and available from our beta/pre-release download site. Please note it is still going through additional testing; there will be a few minor releases to it before it is promoted to the main download site. Main features are: - Internet metadata lookup - plus AutoTagging of Movies and TV Series; Watch Folder AutoTagging - Interactive iTunes launch - launch full iTunes from the iHomeServer Console within your WHS RDP session - "Caching Playlists" - has been significantly sped up Download the pre-release now and let us have your feedback [More]

HOWTO: Manually uninstall the iHomeServer Add-in on WHSv1

Filed under iHomeServer 2 , Windows Home Server

It is important when upgrading any add-in on Windows Home Server v1 that you uninstall the previous version of the add-in before copying the updated add-in file to the server's add-in folder and installing any newer version. This is a long lamented and unfortunate design decision within WHSv1 which has fortunately been resolved in Windows Home Server 2011.

This blog explains how to manually uninstall iHomeServer from your server if you find yourself in this situation.

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How to use iHomeServer with network drives or DriveBender disk pools

Filed under iHomeServer , iTunes , Windows Home Server

We have had quite a few users recently who have been unable to get iHomeServer to index content on network drives or local DriveBender storage pools.  The symptoms of this are that you can add and view files in iTunes that are stored on a remote / network or DriveBender drive when you are running iTunes interactively, however, when you run iTunes via iHomeServer then you can no longer add new content and existing content may not be available within iTunes.  Some users have also had problems seeing cover art and other metadata when they have pointed their iTunes to an iTunes library on a network drive.  You may see these symptoms immediately, or after a reboot or even intermittedly. We posted a blog post a while ago about File Not Found errors similar issues and it is the same root cause problem here. Windows Services cannot reliably see mapped network drives.  There are many Microsoft articles explaining why, but in essence, any network drive letter is tied to a Win... [More]

iHomeServer Version 2 - now with native Windows Home Server support - Sneak Preview!

Filed under iHomeServer 2 , iTunes , Windows Home Server

We are pleased to announce that that we are currently in final testing of iHomeServer v2 which is a major upgrade for the iHomeServer application. This will be a free upgrade for existing registered users.

Read this post for further information about this upcoming release which includes, among other features, the following:

• Slick User Interface - view Watch Folders, status of indexing, track data, review Cover Art, etc
• Native integration with the WHS Management Console - support for both Windows Home Server v1 and Windows Home Server 2011
• View your whole iTunes library and playlists directly within the Windows Home Server Console!
• Plus many other new features ... read the post for further details

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Using iTunes on a Server without a Sound card

Filed under iHomeServer , iHomeServer 2 , iTunes , Windows Home Server

iTunes doesn't like running on systems without sound cards. But there are many reasons why you might want to do such a crazy thing - for example, hosting a central iTunes library using Home Sharing, or hosting an iTunes server whose only purpose in life is to AirPlay to other AirPlay devices. When you start up iTunes on a server with no sound card, you will very likely get a dialog box saying:

iTunes has detected a problem with your audio configuration.  Audio/Video playback may not operate properly.

This post shows how iHomeServer for iTunes overcomes this by monitoring iTunes dialogs in the background and automatically dismissing dialogs that can interfere with running iTunes on a server.

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