Since we had such a great response from our previous post on the Top 10 reasons to use Windows Home Server, we thought it would be beneficial to share our thinking on the business side of things. Don’t let the name Windows Home Server fool you into thinking that this product was created for home use only. A lot of the reasons that you would use Windows Home Server in your home are just as applicable to a small or home office. Windows Home Server provides a dependable and affordable way to organize and safeguard your work on up to 10 computers. In order to help you see how Windows Home Server could enable you to work more efficiently and effectively, take a look at the top 10 reasons to use Windows Home Server in your SOHO.

1. Conveniently backup important data with automatic image-based backup of up to 10 computers every day.

2. Quickly restore an entire PC, a specific hard drive, or individual files and folders in the event of data loss.

3. Remotely access PCs while away from the office to access files, check e-mail, review financial information, or look up an address or phone number.

4. Create a centralized and security enhanced location for important work documents that can be accessed by everyone in the company.

5. Easily find and share information by organizing data in a security-enhanced centralized location.

6. Help reduce downtime with automatic monitoring of the health of your computers on the network to keep them active and available.

7. Easily expand storage space and add new capabilities as your business needs grow.

8. Grant permissions for varying levels of access by team members to your business documents.

9. Easily extend your investment with new Windows Home Server add-ins for things such as virus protection, power management, and online storage.

10. Easy to use and set-up Windows Home Server in as little in 2 hours.

The latest version of Open Media Library is now available for download from openmedialibrary.org and it includes a number of bug fixes and some minor additions. The additions are mostly in the back-end and database manager, however, the bug fixes are certainly worth the update. Much of the work in this patch focuses on the database editor provided to allow users to work with the new SQL database backend which makes OML performance incredible compared with other Media Center movie library plugins. If you haven’t already be sure to check out our post on the Open Media Library .4 beta.

For those who’ve already got the SQL server version installed updating to the latest version is as simple as downloading and installing the latest client version. We’ve got the 0.4.2 client for x86 systems and x64 systems available for download or you can head over to the Open Media Library site to get the latest versions. For those who haven’t given the 0.4 server a try yet we’ve got them available for x86 systems and x64 systems as well. As previously noted in the last Open Media Library article, single system installs require the server version to be installed though if you’ve already got server version 0.4 the latest client is all that is required to update to version 0.4.2.

For those updating, here’s a list of bug fixes and changes in this update, from the OML website:

Fixed:

• Bug fixes to importing previous oml.dat files
• Bug fixes to importing MyMovies.xml files
• bug fixes to importing oml.xml files
• bug fix to the moviecollectorz plugin
• Trailers now work
• fixed disappearing box art in db editor
• bug fixes to backing up/restoring the database
• various crashing fixes relating to meta data searches
• fanart from 0.3 versions of oml will now be pulling into 0.4 during import
• fixed race condition in the database layer
• deleting and updating favorites should now work
• fixed various issues when using 4:3 resolution tvs
• bug fixes relating to extenders (diff bugs for vista and win7 fixed) (extenders)
• fixed bug in transcoding mkv files under win7 (extenders)
• various fixes to drag/drop in the db editor

Added:

• Added firewall exception to the installers for sql server
• Added separate settings for plugins (movies vs tv)
• ability to remove fanart from db editor
• more logging
• ability to rebuild the database from scratch
• ability to do meta-data searches for tv shows and seasons

Changed:

• tv episodes now use “frontcover” image instead of thumbnail for display

If you’re haven’t already given Open Media Library a try be sure to check out our previous guide to getting started with version 0.4 and check it out. With development speeding up recently OML is sure to become a favorite for Windows 7 Media Center users in no time. Also, if you’ve got graphic design experience or coding skills be sure to head on over to the OML forums and lend a hand. Currently they’re looking for someone to create a few icons for use inside Media Center and coders and plugin creators are always in demand.