Microsoft
has signed up additional vendors for its upcoming Windows Home Server platform,
the company unveiled at the
Windows
Hardware Engineering Conference in Los Angeles.
PC maker
Gateway,
French storage vendor
LaCie and
German consumer electronics firm
Medion from
will join HP in
building hardware for Microsoft's back-up and home automation device.
Windows Home Server was unveiled in January at the
Consumer
Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
The software is designed to provide a secure way to back up information for
consumers with multiple computers and a home network. It also allows for remote
access to information.
"It is not only about being simple, but unbelievably reliable," Microsoft
chairman Bill Gates said about the device in his opening keynote at WinHEC.
Stephen Leonard, senior product manager for Windows Home Server, demonstrated
how the appliance can be used with Windows Vista to maintain multiple PCs.
It also functions as a web server, allowing users to access the network and
view files over the web.
Leonard even presented Home Server as a 21st century "naughty step", using
the administration features to remove the music privileges of a misbehaving
child.
Windows Home Server is currently in the Beta 2 stage, and the first devices
are scheduled to ship this Autumn.
Microsoft has also published a software developer kit for the platform that
allows third-party developers to create additional applications.
Security vendor
F-Secure
is preparing to release antivirus software, and
Iron
Mountain is preparing an information management suite to protect user data.
Previous WinHEC events were dominated by Windows Vista but, with the launch
of the operating system earlier this year, Gates's keynote was notably short on
news.
He revealed that Microsoft's upcoming server operating system would be named
Windows
Server 2008, but this merely confirmed earlier reports. The software was
previously known by its Longhorn codename.
"We know that it is a surprise for us to pick something so straightforward,"
Gates joked.
The Microsoft chairman also talked up the Vista operating system, boasting
that the software had surpassed expectations by selling more than 40 million
copies in the first 100 days after launch.
Gates claimed that Vista had been adopted at twice the rate of its
predecessor, Windows XP. In its first five weeks, Gates said, Vista matched the
install base of any competing OS.
"We have really been amazed at the customer response. We knew that Vista
would become the standard version of Windows, we knew that the industry would be
stepping up, but what has happened in those first 100 days has been beyond
expectations," he said.
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