How do you explain the benefits of Windows Home Server to the "end user" (not the administrator of Windows Home Server, but the person who you may need to convince or explain why this software is important, cool, or some other adjective du jour) in a home?  How do you get them to be excited about a new piece of technology - how do they see the benefits?

Here are some of the things I have heard from real people with the software:

• "Fixing up the Kid's PC after they have made a mess of it, is so easy with the computer restore functiionality" 
• "I gave my roommate R/W privileges to the Photos folder and he accidentally deleted a handful of pictures.  I used previous versions to recover it - he was happy, I was ecstatic!"
• "My wife loves that all of our music is available through the old stereo with the Roku M1000 hooked up to it."

In a sense the home server is invisible until something goes wrong (e.g. restoring a PC or set of files) or it is providing a service (e.g. media streaming) that people aren't quite sure how it all works. 

I would love to hear other people's experiences in explaining the benefits of Windows Home Server to the "end users" in the home or even better true stories with real quotes .... Feel free to e-mail them or reply as comments to this post.

Thanks for the replies, although some of you are still answering it from your "I installed this product and here is what I like" perspective.  Try the other hat on .... here is what my household members think of it ... (Note:  only works if you live with other people).  

"Bucko" provided a good synopsis of selling points trying to convince a prospective customer, but "j and v" really hit the nail on the head.  How do I convince my wife that I can spend $xxx to buy this, or better yet how do I convince her to buy it for "us" for my birthday?

"dubbug" provided an interesting challenge and asked for a synopsis of quotes from "confused end users".  Sounds like a great topic for a future blog post.  I have read some interesting things in the home server forums, which has led me to firmly believe that 2 things are needed:

• A collection of Technical Briefs that explain the inner workings of Windows Home Server, including how Automated Backup, Drive Extender, and Remote Access work, in detail.  I have added that to my long list of things to get done...and the list has more than 3 things on it.
• A high-level overview of the benefits of a home server and why a household would need one ... that is also on my list.

Hopefully, you have all had time to read the Getting Started Guide and the Reviewers Guide for Windows Home Server posted on http://connect.microsoft.com/WindowsHomeServer (click on "Downloads" on the left).  So today's question is:

What additional documentation / knowledge can we share with you?  If I could produce a 5-6 page document, what would be the title of it?

t.

Sent out another big batch of Connect Invite IDs today.  One person had registered fourteen (14!) different times - welcome to Beta2 !! 

We also posted the Windows Home Server Beta 2 documentation on the Connect site (http://connect.microsoft.com/WindowsHomeServer ).   Just click on the 'Downloads' link on the left.  It's a good read - if you are still in the queue... 

Thanks for the great feedback.  The number of quality bugs that are being submitted is fantastic.   The more descriptive you are, the easier it is to reproduce the problem and start working on a fix.