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.