Can a WHS box itself play audio?
Hi all, I'm hoping I can use a WHS box to play audio -- a few questions:
1) Can I use a Terminal Server client running on another PC on my LAN to get a "conventional Windows" interface coming from an WHS box? (ie, not the WHS admin interface)
2) From within Terminal Server, can I run Internet Explorer and install apps like WMP, Rhapsody, etc. -- on the WHS box?
3) If, via Terminal Server, I run WMP or Rhapsody or whatever over on the WHS, and click play, can I get audio out of the WHS box, via USB and/or a sound card? (I gather WHS boxes wouldn't generally have sound cards -- but, if I can get the USB audio, that should actually be even better)
Here's the idea: if I can install apps like WMP and Rhapsody on the WHS box, and can patch the audio out from the WHS box into the stereo, then I can use Remote Desktop to browse and play everything I have stored on the WHS box (and other Web-based source) -- and my wi-fi laptop becomes a universal control.
That might sound complicated at first, but it's actually quite simple, and then I could use the WHS box *both* as a storage/backup hub and *also* as a media source to other stuff at home (stereo, etc) -- for me, it make the WHS literally twice as useful.
If I was unclear, please let me know so I can try again!
thanks, -Scott
All Replies
Turnstyle -
1) Yes it can. Just launch Remote Desktop Connection and type in the name of your WHS box. You'll see the familiar "Enter username and password" Windows 2003 login screen. Enter "Administrator" and the master password for your WHS to login to the desktop.
2) Yes, but please keep in mind that while it may look like Windows 2003, act like Windows 2003 under the scenes there are things about WHS that are not Windows 2003. Specifically security related areas of the box and the file storage system.
3) As long as you have a sound driver installed, you can get sound out of it. You can even send the sound over your RDP connection if you like.
Good luck with your venture!
Rob
- Yes, yes, and (potentially, if you can get sound working) yes. There are certain things you can only do using the Remote Desktop interface, such as installing printer drivers (though use as a print server is unsupported), or potentially installing certain other server applications. So installing things like Rhapsody (if you can get it to install on the server, which is based on a version of Windows Server 2003) would be possible.
However, there is a fly in the ointment: you will violate the EULA if you do so, which restricts your use of the server in several ways. What the restrictions boil down to is that you can't use it as a desktop operating system or terminal server, and you can't enable server roles that Microsoft doesn't enable up front (which doesn't matter to you, but does to other folks). Also, don't forget that you have a fixed limit of 20Gb as the available space on your C: drive - not a lot to play with when you think of the size of some of Microsofts' updates.
Colin
Thanks for all the info -- so WHS ships with a Terminal Server, and you can use Terminal Server to get a convetional Windows desktop from the WHS, but using it is a violaion of the WHS EULA?
And WHS only has a total of 20Gb available for the OS, updates, and any additional apps?
thanks again, -Scott
- All correct. Terminal Server (in remote administration mode) is present because the WHS Console runs on the server, and is presented on clients or the Remote Access web site through Remote Desktop. And the space limitation is because WHS is intended to be a headless appliance, not a desktop (or TS) operating system.
There are some exceptions in the EULA for WHS admin tasks, but using the desktop as a conventional desktop (even to let you "remote control" from your laptop) is clearly going to be a violation. That's a deal-breaking bummer!
Any idea why the EULA forbids using the WHS desktop via Remote Desktop?
- I could guess, but that's all it would be, a guess, so I won't speculate. (I'm sure others will...
)
But I don't see it as a deal-breaker. Sure, you will violate the EULA if you use Remote Desktop on the server every day. But WHS isn't designed to be a general purpose desktop operating system, it's got more in common with embedded server operating systems. Instead of using WHS as a home theater PC, which it will do poorly (it's based on Windows Server 2003, not Vista or MCE), use a HTPC. Let WHS do what it's best at: protecting your data and making it available anywhere, anytime.
And there are things that you can install on your server if you want. I have Firefly and Readerware Client/Server installed, for example. Other users have installed other products. There's a range of add-ins that will be reaching the market in the next few months for everything from backups of critical files to the internet using services like Amazon's S3, to home automation, to a BitTorrent addin (I don't think that last is going to be commercialized, actually...). By deal-breaker, I was referring to the idea of also using the WHS box as a media server, in addition to its intended role as backup server -- that would indeed be an everyday use, and it sounds like the WHS EULA says that such a use isn't allowed.
I guess what I'm saying is that I'd also like to use the WHS as a scaled back HTPC, and thereby eliminate the need for another HTPC box taking up space, wasting electricity, etc.
Less is more! -Scott
- I see. Yes, the EULA prohibits the use you want to make of WHS. There's a difference between using WHS as a media server, which would be fine according to the EULA, and a media player, which wouldn't. A server delivers the media to something else (a player) for consumption. "Something else" could be a HTPC (or another PC), a MCE Extender such as an XBox, or anything else that can accept the streaming formats that WHS can provide. Out of the box, that's limited to what Windows Media Connect 2.0 can serve up, but you can install other servers if you want iTunes (Firefly, as I mentioned previously) or other media formats.
And you don't have to use streaming media. Because files on WHS are accessable through SMB shares, just about any media player that can browse file shares can see the files on the server once configured correctly.
I think your concern about power consumption is slightly misplaced, however. WHS is designed to be "always on", but I think most of the OEM units that are coming to market in the next few months look like they will be relatively low-power. That's partly because some of the common power-hungry components won't exist in a WHS device (no gamer's dream video card, for example), so the server will be able to consume less power, and it's partly because Microsoft's OEM device requirements include SPL and environmental requirements that effectively dictate low heat, and thus low power. And a properly configured HTPC will spend most of it's life in standby (S3) or hibernation (S4), so it will be consuming only a couple of watts most of the time. Space and cost are more serious considerations...
