Changing the Windows Home Server Password
The Windows Home Server
password—that is, the password associated with the Administrator
account—must meet or exceed the current Windows Home Server password
policy requirements for length and complexity. However, you may feel
that you can make the password more secure by making it longer or by
including characters from all four of the following sets: lowercase
letters, uppercase letters, numbers, and symbols. Similarly, you might
want to enhance security by changing the password regularly, as security
experts urge us to do. Either way, here are the steps to follow to
change the password using the Windows Home Server Dashboard:
1. | Launch the Windows Home Server Dashboard.
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2. | Click the Home section.
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3. | Click Common Tasks.
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4. | Click Reset Server Password.
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5. | Use the Existing Server Password text box to type the current password.
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6. | Type
the new password in the Type a New Password and Confirm the New
Password text boxes. Make sure you see check marks beside each item in
the Password Requirements section.
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7. | Type a password hint.
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8. | Click Change Password to put the new password into effect. Windows Home Server tells you that the password has been changed.
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9. | Click OK.
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Tip
If you
just want to change the password hint, follow the steps in this section,
but enter the current password in the Password and Confirm Password
text boxes. Then enter the new hint in the Password Hint text box.
Alternatively, you can edit the hint via the Registry Editor. Log on to
the server and select Start, Run to open the Run dialog box, type regedit,
and click OK. In the Registry Editor, open the following key:
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows Server\Identity. Double-click the
PasswordHint setting, type the new hint, and then click OK.
Restarting or Shutting Down Windows Home Server
The
Windows Home Server is meant to run as an always-on appliance that
should rarely need to be restarted or shut down. However, if you find
that Windows Home Server is performing sluggishly or acting flaky, the
standard Windows troubleshooting advice—reboot the machine!—might be in
order. Similarly, if you need to add an internal circuit board or hard
drive, or if you’ll be going on vacation for an extended time, you need
to shut down the server.
If you’re logged on to the
Windows Home Server, you can use the normal Windows technique of
selecting Start, Shut Down to display the Shut Down Windows dialog box,
choosing Restart or Shut Down in the list, and then clicking OK.
If you’re on a client, you can
restart or shut down the server remotely using the Windows Home Server
Dashboard. Here are the steps to follow:
1. | Launch the Windows Home Server Dashboard.
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2. | Click Server Settings to open the Server Settings dialog box.
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3. | Click the arrow beside the Shut Down icon.
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4. | Click either Restart or Shut Down. Windows Home Server asks you to confirm.
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5. | Click Yes.
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Tip
On the client machine,
you probably want to know when Windows Home Server restarts. One way to
do this is to select Start, All Programs, Command Prompt to open a
command prompt session. Enter the following command (replace the IP
address shown with the IP address of the server):
This tells Windows to
repeatedly ping the server’s IP address. While the server is restarting,
Windows displays the following result for each ping:
When the server is back up and running, you’ll know because the ping result changes to something like the following:
Reply from 192.168.1.254: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=128
Press Ctrl+C to stop the pinging.
