Windows Home Server “Vail” Beta Now Available from Microsoft

If you’re interested in trying out the next version of Microsoft Windows Home Server (Codenamed “Vail”) you can hop on over to the Microsoft Connect web site to sign up to test it. Here’s more from the official Windows Blog:

Windows 7 Up-Close: HomeGroup

This information applies to the following Windows 7 Editions: Starter (Join only), Home Basic (Join only), Home Premium, Professional, Ultimate, and Enterprise

New to Windows 7 is a unique feature called HomeGroup.  This little feature will help even the most novice of users with the task of networking two or more PCs.  Using HomeGroup users will be able to share Documents, Videos, Music, Pictures, and Printers (among some other devices) across a network easily and with virtually no networking experience.

 

If you are currently connected to either a wired or wireless network with two or more PCs you can easily setup a HomeGroup between these computers.  The setup is relatively simple and pain-free, for the most part.  If you are having issues you may want to check out my section titled A Few Showstopper Experiences. Throughout this section I will detail how to first setup up a HomeGroup and then add devices to the HomeGroup.  If you feel even braver I’ll also detail how to change some of the default settings, such as changing the password, changing the default file locations, and enabling streaming video, music, and pictures over HomeGroup.  The last of these is probably my favorite feature of HomeGroup, but we’ll get to that one later.