Microsoft announced on July sixteen that it has completed improvement of its Windows House Server (WHS) product and has released the code to manufacturing.In the WHS team weblog:“Today we are announcing that Windows Home Server has been launched to manufacturing (RTM). We have finalized the software and now handing it off to our OEM partners. The evaluation version (with 120 day evaluation period) and the system builder version are also heading into the distribution channels and will be available in the next couple of months. French,
Windows 7 Activation, German and Spanish versions will be finalized shortly, and OEM products will hit retail shelves this fall. “Also on July sixteen, Microsoft made public the names of two more OEMs who will make available WHS variants “in time for the holidays this year.” The two: Fujitsu Siemens,
Microsoft Office 2007, with a item called the “Scaleo House Server,” and Iomega, with an expandable consumer networking item that will include up to four hot-swappable drives.Windows House Server is designed to act as a central hub for storage of music,
Office Professional 2007, photos, and other files. It will include automatic backup and restore,
Microsoft Office 2007 Key, as well as remote file-access capabilities. The product will be sold exclusively through OEMs and system builders.Microsoft delivered the near-final Release Candidate of WHS to testers on June 12.Microsoft has said to expect the first WHS systems to be available this fall from Hewlett-Packard (Microsoft;s original WHS OEM partner,
Microsoft Office 2010, first unveiled in January). Other OEM hardware and software partners who;ve committed to develop WHS systems include Gateway and consumer storage vendor LaCie and Medion International.