Home Server fix delayed until June

Author: Gareth Halfacree
Published: 12th March 2008

Users of devices like this HP MediaSmart Server will have to wait until June for a bugfix to be released.

Those of you running Windows Home Server will be disappointed to hear that a bug first covered here in December is still on Microsoft's “To Do” list.

To recap, the flaw results in files edited directly on the server – as opposed to being edited on a desktop and then manually copied to the server – having a non-zero chance of vanishing completely. Not what you need from a server that's supposed to be your primary document store, really.

A post to the Home Server Technet blog on Monday has offered scant hope for users still trying to gingerly work around this issue. In the blog posting – signed by “The Windows Home Server Tearm” - the issue is described as the team’s top priority. The post also promises that “the team is making good progress on the fix” and understands “the issue really well at this point.”

From there, the news takes a turn for the worse. Describing the glitch as occurring at “an extremely low level of the operating system” the team claims to need “several more weeks” to test the fix that has been written to address the flaw. After that, a beta version of the patch will be launched.

The long and short of it is: if you're currently experiencing this issue, you'll have to find ways around it until June this year at the absolute earliest – six months after the flaw was reported to Microsoft.

Until then, the advice from the original KnowledgeBase article applies: “use Windows Explorer or a command-line tool to copy files to and from the Windows Home Server-based computer” and “do not use applications to directly edit or change files that are stored on the Windows Home Server.”

Are you shocked at how long Microsoft is taking to fix a critical bug in its flagship home server product, or do you think the whole issue has been blown out of all proportion? Share your thoughts over in the forums.