Making your Netbook functional using Windows 7 and Windows Home Server

Published 30 January 09 09:28 PM

As a recent purchaser of a netbook I sought out to make it the most functional system possible.  Ultimately I wanted to make sure that all of my files I can access from the PC in the Den I can access from my netbook.  I have well over 200 gigabytes of music, photos, videos, and other personal files.  My netbook, a HP Mini, has only a 60 gigabyte drive.  Fortunately there are many options to easily share these files without needing space on your netbook.  I took an approach leveraging Windows 7 and Windows Home Server.

First, I have all of my personal files located on my Windows Home Server.  Each is well organized into folders for Photos, Music, Video, and personal files.  Second, I have installed Windows 7 on my HP Mini. (I’ll post on how to do this in the future.)

Windows 7 has a new capability called Libraries which is a way of easily accessing a collection of folders and files.  You have libraries configured for your Document, Music, Pictures, Videos, Downloads, etc.   Each of these libraries can be configured to reference any folder located on your local PC or Network.  With this capability, I modified each library to reference the corresponding folder on my Windows Home Server.  I’ll provide an example using the Music library:

  1. Click Start, right-click on Music, then click Properties
  2. From the Properties window click the Include Folder button, then navigate to the Music folder located on your Windows Home Server.
  3. Click the Include Folder button once you have located the folder.
  4. Click OK to close the Properties windows.

Now you can easily access all of your Music located on your Windows Home Server from your Windows 7 PC.  These steps can be duplicated for each of your personal libraries.

Another option that will work if you are running Windows 7 on all PCs across your home network would be to create a Homegroup on your primary PC and then join the netbook to that Homegroup.  This will also allow you easy access to your personal files.

I’m quite pleased with the overall results.  Windows Home Server, combined with the capabilities of Windows 7 have allowed for easy sharing and easy access to all of my personal files in just a few clicks.

by ShadLar
Filed under: , , ,

Comment Notification

If you would like to receive an email when updates are made to this post, please register here

Subscribe to this post's comments using RSS

Comments

# Adam said on February 8, 2009 9:50 PM:

One thing I havn't been able to resolve with Windows 7 and WHS is that since upgrading my laptop to W7, the auto backup to WHS has stopped working.

With Vista, my laptop would wake up in the small hours and backup to the WHS. This would happen whether it was connected by a network cable or even Wifi (which I thought was impressive).

Since installing W7 though - it's stopped backing up automatically.

# ScottIsAFool said on March 23, 2009 12:01 PM:

One question, every time I try this, it comes up saying I can't add a network location as it's not been indexed, so how are you adding those folders to your index?

# ShadLar said on March 25, 2009 6:19 PM:

I'm currently just going to the Library properties and adding the network location to the Library and then setting it as the default save location.

Make sure to verify permissions and access when doing this.

# Windows Home Server Team Blog said on May 27, 2009 4:25 PM:

There is good news if you are one of the many people that purchased a netbook computer over the past

# Cashable said on June 3, 2009 9:23 AM:

WRT the following:

# ScottIsAFool said on March 23, 2009 12:01 PM:

One question, every time I try this, it comes up saying I can't add a network location as it's not been indexed, so how are you adding those folders to your index?

The problem may be between the new PC and the router ie. joining the network. I had a similar error and it was resolved when I re-ran installing/accessing a home network. When I was prompted to insert a thumb drive, the new system information was transferred to the thumb drive. I was then prompted to insert the thumb drive into my Linksys 610N and the other systems on my home network and then reinsert the thumb drive back into the original new system. Index problem fixed.

Cashable

090603

# ShadLar said on June 3, 2009 5:28 PM:

This is something I have also encountered in the Win7 RC build, I was able to solve the indexing error by making the networked location avaialble offline.

Navigate to the networked location, right-click on it, and click "Always Available Offline".  This will allow you to add the location to the Library.

The negative impact of this is if you have a Netbook with limited storage capacity it can take up some space to have those cahed offline copies of the files.

Leave a Comment

(required) 
(optional)
(required) 

  
Enter Code Here: Required

This Blog

Syndication

Page view tracker