As the number of Add-ins for Windows Home Server increases and the Add-In developer community grows in size and expertise we are seeing a shift from single purpose add-ins to add-in suites containing a whole range of different tools accessed from console. We’ve already seen this demonstrated with add-ins like Whiist.
Certainly Jay Hinrich’s WHS Customizer tool appears to be positioning itself with this intention. From within its interface in the Windows Home Server Settings panel it declares “More to come” below the current offering, Website Image Changer. This is an add-in within an add-in, though why it can only be accessed from the WHS settings panel and not the Console tab I don’t know.
Website Image changer is a simple add-in that allows the user to change the standard image that appears on your home server’s remote webpage - bye bye happy fanilies, and hello whatever you wish!
In a previous add-in review I was critical of the lack of Help functions available within that particular application - no such problem with Website Image Changer, a simple step by step guide is available to walk the user through the add-in’s usage. Well done Jay!
The help screen takes the user through the steps required to open an image, rotating it if necessary and then cropping the image before saving it to the library and the server web page. Previous images are left in the library so they can easily be selected again. You could easily change the image every day if you wanted too!
Jay has made the graphical interface easy to use and ready for further features. In the future, I think we’ll see more add-in suites, grouping together a variety of related functions into a neat package that can be added to as necessary. If Jay hasn’t got the next part of this add-in ready can I suggest an add-in that displays a slide show of images on the WHS Remote Access page?
January 27th, 2008 at 3:15 pm
A slideshow, or random image would be very, very cool!
what about other homepage templates?
January 28th, 2008 at 3:54 am
This add-in is ok, but the whiist add-in has a much better interface for selecting/zooming/cropping the new image. If you use whiist there’s not much point installing this.
January 28th, 2008 at 5:16 am
I have problems with the crop tool; as I want the complete, uncropped image to show up. I guess the forced cropping is a way to make sure the image gets the right size/resolution, but it is still forced!
January 28th, 2008 at 6:25 am
Solved! Always wise to actually READ the Help stuff.
January 28th, 2008 at 2:59 pm
No disrespect to the developer, but this add-in has such a small amount of functionality it’s hardly worth reviewing it. Maybe when it’s got some more features it’ll be worth a look.
January 28th, 2008 at 3:11 pm
I agree that the add-in available is replicated elsewhere with Whiist. However I think that the modular way the devloper has designed the add-in makes it a easier to slot in more functionality. We will just have to wait and see what comes next.
April 2nd, 2008 at 5:38 am
The WHS Customizer add-in has solved a major issue for me. I hope that an update will allow the removal or change of the image displayed when logged in remotely.
May 16th, 2008 at 3:46 am
I like this small but as of yet incommplete ad-in. I always hated that picture on the log in page and this ad-in allows a more personalized log in page. Now if you can just get to the main WHS page so we can change that photo I will call the ad-in a complete sucess. That change could be located on button-2…. Microsoft sure needs to hire a better photo editor, at least now we can be our own editor!
Thanks for your efforts!
Mark