As spring has now officially started over here, together with two days of nice warm weather we had, I can only be happy! 
So I want to share this happyness with my users and give a ’spring-discount’, for a week.
From 20/03 till 27/03 you can buy an AdminiMe license for 6$/6€/6£/600Yen!
So go over here and register: http://www.asoft.be/prod_adminimewhs.html
Enjoy!
Nick
First of all, I would like to thank all people for the great feedback I’ve got.
The release itself went flawlessly and I received great feedback and comments and luckily not too many issues… 
There are some annoying issues in the current version, but luckily none that render your server useless!
I am working on an update release to fix those issues, improve the help,… and I hope to release it within the month.
But you know software & schedules never match… :-s So don’t take my word for it!
I am doing my best to get it pollished and get the V1 growing pains out.
But the first two weeks I was overwelmed with mails, so not too much development took place, but it’s clearing up now… 
For so far the update…
Enjoy AdminiMe!
Christoph Dommermuth and his team from home-server-blog.de are celebrating their third birthday!
To celebrate this there is a 15% discount on the LightsOut add-in!
Go over to their site and use the code HSBBIRTHDAY when you check-out.
The voucher is active from Friday 05 February to Sunday 07 February.
Congratulations!
Nick
Maybe to explain the title a bit, when I started with AutoExit in 2007 I constantly had the feeling that I was missing more info in the WHS Console.
I like meters, data, statistics,…and as the WHS is basically headless and has nothing more than the WHS Console I needed more info like in the event viewer/task manager/performance monitor/…
So while developing AutoExit, I started with my second add-in ‘Server Stats’ which showed the CPU/disks/memory (very basic info).
Now this was all nice, but I needed more because the server is sitting there in some closet, corner, basement,…basically nobody sees or touches it once it has started, but what if…some process is using all the CPU resources and your machine is sitting for hours pegged at 100%, what if some app is leaking memory and is slowly choking you server, what if some fatal error occurs and gets logged to your event viewer, what if…
That are already a lot of ‘what if’s’ that can occur once you get thinking about it, so I started with a monitoring service to include with it and before I knew it I had an add-in that kept out an eye for my server.
But AutoExit 2008 was released and people liked it, gave feedback and before I knew it, I was developing AutoExit 2008 R2.
So ServerStats development was halted for nearly a year. :/
Then I took the descision to halt development of the major new version of AutoExit and create a minor version called AutoExit 2009 so that I can finally get out this one as well, so I started again and after a few months I recruited some testers.
And from then on we got off to a flying start, I got lots of feedback from the various testers.
And I would especially like to thank (in alphabetical order) some people who have put a lot of work in providing feedback:
Alex Kuretz from MediaSmartServer.Net
Alexander Kent from HomeServerLand
Dave McCabe from the HomeServerShow
Christian Baumann
Christopher Mclean
Jim Clark from WeGotServed
Ken Warren
Kris Rodenhausen from P80 add-in
Masahiko Sada
Masashi Shimizu
Matt Glover
Nic Mertens
Pål Andreassen
Sébastien from monhomeserver.fr
Terry Walsh from WeGotServed
Yoshi Okabe from the famous Japanese Blog
…
I hope I didn’t forget anyone here, because a lot of people helped me and the ones mentioned were people that helped me throughout the whole testing phase and some of them were even brave enough to test the first Alpha versions.
If you think your name should be on here too because I forgot you, let me know and I’ll have a look to add you too!
Now before people start asking me about the name…
The problem with these kinds of ‘applications’ is that all good ones have already been taken, try to find a name that describes functionality with monitor, administration,…
So I wrote a them down and by chance I came to this: ADMINIster ME, I loved the name and was very happy to finally get a unique name after trying a lot of combinations!
Now to the core of the post, what does it do, who is it for,…
As the Home Server is a headless machine that is running non stop for long periods of times, and mostly hidden away in some closet/basement/small room; people don’t look at its ‘health’ to often.
To avoid this, you can use AdminiMe, it will monitor your server in the background without you having to do anything.
And in case something goes wrong, it will notify you via mail.
Added to this monitoring, it contains a console where you can watch all kinds of parameters in real-time.
Things like CPU, memory, network, disks and all kinds of statistics like uptime, longest uptime, # of starts,…
But it doesn’t stop there, it also has shortcuts to the most relevant tools: Event Viewer, Task Manager, Performance Monitor, Remote Desktop.
You also have the option to add your own shortcuts to applications!
And next to that, there is a ‘Run-box’ which has the same functionality as the Windows Run Dialog. (use it with caution!)
There is also a screen where you can view, which users have open files to the server shares.
All events are kept in a log that can be consulted later on.
So as you can read, a lot of functionality packed into 1 add-in!
I decided to make this one paying, to support the work I’ve put into AutoExit & AdminiMe (they don’t just grow by themselves )
But I made it a very reasonable price for everyone! Have a look here or here.
The unregistered version basically contains 99.99% of all functionalities, except: there is a nag-screen in the console when the add-in is loaded & the mails that get sent in case of problems don’t contain any details. If you want the details, you need to go to the WHS Console itself.
So all in all I made it very cheap and hope people support my work for these two add-ins!
Have fun!
Nick
The author Stephen of www.mediacenterhouse.com has done a very extensive review of AutoExit 2009.
Have a look here: http://www.mediacenterhouse.com/forum/Thread-AutoExit
What is MediaCenterHouse? (from the owner)
www.mediacenterhouse.com is all about implementing Media Center PCs into your life – when HTPCs and DIY collide the results are fantastically addictive!
Featuring custom installs in living rooms (dens), kitchens, bedrooms and even bathrooms, the possibilities of where and how to use an HTPC are limitless.
From single PC PVRs to multiple HTPCs throughout the home served by a Windows Home Server, there is no system too small or large to be featured.
The have a forum here and a blog here.
Have a look for yourself!
In the shadow of AutoExit I have been working on a new add-in, but due to the time that AutoExit occupied me; this new add-in was postponed and postponed and.. until I made the descision to pause the work for AutoExit and work fulltime on this new add-in.
It’s been 2y+ since I started with this one!
I won’t go into details yet about what it is (bit of suspense doesn’t hurt ) but the release is planned for 21/01/2010. (if all goes well)
Atm the private testers are working hard to get the final version tested before it gets released to the outside world!
A lot of people have contributed to this one over the last year/months in getting it ready, thanks guys!
You know who you are…
Christoph from HomeServerBlog made me aware that there was a problem with the C# template file contained in the Kit.
If you have the bad file you won’t see the template added in Visual Studio and there will be an error in the Event Viewer:
Log Name: Application
Source: Visual Studio – VsTemplate
Event ID: 1
Level: Warning
Keywords: Classic
Description: One or more Visual Studio templates is invalid and will not be displayed.
I added the correct file to the Developer Kit and it should work now.
For the rest there are no changes made to the Developer Kit.
You can download it here.
A friend of mine, Boris Rogge has a company www.metanous.be, he is an expert at the Microsoft Surface Computing Platform.
He already has such a table and can create great applications on it!
Now, there is a contest for MIX’10 that you can present your own session. The best 10 (most voted) get that honour.
So help him out, by voting here: http://visitmix.com/opencallvote/Entry?entryId=REALWO092
First click ‘Add Ballot’ followed by ‘Submit’.
The results have been published and AutoExit 2009 made it to #1 on UsingWindowsHomeServer in the category ‘Best Windows Home Server Software (Non Commercial)’
It made it to #2 on WeGotServed a few days ago.
AutoExit 2009 voted #1 on UsingWindowsHomeServer
Congratulations to snowdins with his second place with the P80 software!
Thanks to all people that voted!
Yesterday afternoon I got a mail from Microsoft telling me I was awarded the MVP Award!
And it feels great being awarded with this title and even more to get it on the first of January!
Maybe now is the time to thank all the people who have supported me during all these years being in the WHS world/community, who have helped me get my add-ins tested/translated/…, reviewed my articles, getting problems fixed,… and supported me through my first steps in the WHS world.
They are too many to list here, but you know who you are!
So I can now officially call myself an MVP and join the MVP Family as they like to call it
And congratulations to all others that have been (re-)awarded!
