Windows Home Server

Windows Home Server (codenamed Quattro) is a home server solution developed by Microsoft, based on Windows Small Business Server 2003, itself a spin-off of Windows Server 2003. It was formally announced by Bill Gates, then-CEO of Microsoft, on 8 January 2007 at the 2007 Consumer Electronics Show at the Las Vegas Convention Center. It was first released to manufacturing on 16 July 2007 and was made generally available on 4 November 2007. Along with the launch of Windows Home Server, a children's book titled Mommy, Why is There a Server in the House? was released to promote the then-new operating system.

A key functionality of Windows Home Server is the Console, which allows the administrator to configure certain aspects of the server, such as managing computers in a network, viewing the status of disk drives and the ability to create and modify user accounts through a dashboard application. Users can remotely log onto an online server dashboard, host personal file shares on the server and publish images to the Internet—all of which is achieved through the use of the Home Server Connector software.

The operating system was short-lived, with support having ended on 8 January 2013. It was eventually succeeded by Windows Home Server 2011, based on Windows Server 2008 R2. The Small Business and Home Server product lines were eventually discontinued in favor of the Windows Server 2012 Essentials edition.

System requirements
Microsoft recommends Windows Home Server to be installed on a system with an Pentium III running on 1 GHz or better, at least 512 MB of RAM, 70 GB of hard drive space, a SVGA display adapter or better display adapter, a 100 Mbit/s Ethernet network adapter and a DVD-ROM drive.