CES 2007: Microsoft's Home Server

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Bill Gates announced Microsoft's Windows Home Server at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas this week.

The software is designed to sit on third-party hardware and provide simple to use and manage network storage.

"The Windows Home Server is for homes with multiple PCs, where you want your files available to all," said Gates.

HP is set to be the first company to use the server software when it launches its HP Media SmartServer in the second half of this year. As well as providing shared storage the product will support Automatic back-ups.

"The Home Server will find your PCs and make sure they're backed up," added Gates.

Keeping with Gates' vision of a better connected future, the Home Server isn't just for local PCs, and will connect to the Xbox 360, Zune and remote PCs.

While there was no demonstration, Gates claimed that remote access to the Home Server will be simple to configure and use, and secure.

Simplicity is something that Microsoft seemed keen to push, particularly when it comes to adding extra storage.

"You don't have to think about new volumes," said Gates. "Just add a new storage device and the Home Server will automatically configure it and move your data around."

Gates claimed that you can get terabytes of storage and that both

AMD and Intel are building reference designs.

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