WHS “Vail” Build 7360
February 4, 2010 by Mike
Filed under Home Server, Windows Media Center
Rafael Rivera from Within Windows has taken a close look at a leaked copy of the next version of Windows Home Server currently known as “Vail” and has uncovered some interesting details. According to Rivera the leaked build of Vail exposes some interesting codenames including ‘Aurora’ and ‘Colorado’. Aurora “appears to be a Small Business Server version that sits somewhere between WHS and the current SBS products” notes Rivera. Colorado “appears to be remote device related.”
New features
This version of WHS Vail provides two major functional updates, Homegroup creation/integration and media streaming. Both appear to be based on the same functionality that appears in Windows 7, and the media streaming feature utilizes a sweet Silverlight-based player, through its revamped remote console, that transcodes content of virtually any kind from what I can tell, on-the-fly. (I personally tested WMV, H.264, and XviD.)
New Dashboard
WHS Vail comes with a new dashboard, which replaces the awful admin console from the current version with a new normal window that appears to be the basis for similar dashboards in future versions of Windows Small Business Server and Windows Essential Business Server. This Dashboard is customizable, more so than previous versions, enabling server makers like HP to customize it with their own look and feel – color scheme, unique Home tab content, and more.