We Got Served - The Windows Home Server Site

The We Got Served team have been trying out the AutoExit 2008R2 beta and have been putting it through its paces over the past few weeks - as you may already have heard via the Home Server Show, the AutoExit 2008R2 beta is now officially released!  AutoExit has all the original features of the previous version as well as few more and a much improved setup plus an automatic update feature. You can catch Nick from Asoft on the latest Home Server Show podcast chatting to Dave McCabe about the new version of AutoExit.

So let’s take a look at what’s in the new version, and provide a little background on AutoExit’s history .

ASoft developed the original AutoExit in 1998 as a small utility to shut down a computer at a certain time - over time more features such as shutting down remote computers with numerous options were added. In 2001/2 AutoExit became very popular and was one of the #1 shutdown utilities on the major download sites like download.com. AutoExit became a well known utility used by companies, to manage their machines. e.g to shut them down each Friday at 8 o’clock. The original AutoExit is now AutoExit 2007. 

As part Asofts’s involvement in the private beta of WHS it seemed logical to adapt AutoExit for WHS as an add-in. This was made available via We Got Served and received a very good response. Users gave very positive feedback and development continue with the WHS version. As soon as the one version was released, development on the next one started. The list of features and to-do’s is still lengthy. 

After months of hard work with help from some very nice people who tested the alpha & beta builds of AutoExit. (Apparently they know who they are ;-)) AutoExitR2 is a major step forward. One of the issues in version 1, was that configuring the systems to shut down wasn’t always straightforward due to the security settings in Windows, and this needed to be addressed in R2 so that users wouldn’t have to do so much configuring anymore, but more on this later. 

When Richard Hay reviewed this add-in 6 months ago he identified that it would appeal to someone who wanted to manage all their networked PC’s from one location, in particular if you had PC’s in various locations about you home which needed to switch off or boot up remotely. 

This scenario still pans out and Asoft have listened to feedback from users and have come up with a couple of additional features. 

Once the AutoExit Add-In is installed via the Console the AutoExit tab displays all PC’s on your network; 

To access the AutoExit functions select a PC then a right mouse click brings up a menu;

All the previous tools from the original AutoExit are here:

Shut Down - Turns the computer off.

Reboot - Restarts the computer.

Cancel - Cancels the last action.  If you requested a Shut Down and you cancel it before the default timeout then it will stop.  This also sends a notification to the remote machine.

Wake On Lan –If the BIOS of the target PC is capable, his will allow you to wake up the remote machine.

Remote Desktop Client- access the client machine using the Remote Desktop protocol via the WHS Console.

Send Message - This should send a message the remote machine however, I am unable to get this to work myself.  If you have enabled the Messenger Service.

Shut Down All - This will shut down all of your home computers attached to the WHS.

Shut Down Server – Shut down your WHS

Remote Desktop Server - Use the Remote Desktop Protocol to access your Windows Home Server from the console.

Additional Features 

At the suggestion of users a couple of new ones have been added:

Sleep - Put a client machine to sleep.

Hibernate - Put a client machine into hibernation mode. (If enabled)

Log Off - Log off the current user.

Lock Work Station - Lock the client machine.

Edit MAC Address – On occasions when the MAC address of a client cannot be retrieved, the MAC address will be displayed as 00:00:00:00:00:00. You can then edit it manually via this option. To retrieve the MAC address of you client: - Go to the client PC run menu. - Type ‘cmd’ and press ‘enter’. - Type ‘ipconfig /all’. Now there should be a physical address containing the mac address. Use that one to fill in. If there are more than 1 MAC addresses you can separate them via ‘;’. For Example: 11:22:33:44:55:66;AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF

Deleting the manually set MAC addresses will allow AutoExit to try to retrieve it automatically again. 

AutoExit update

In addition to the new tools Asoft have also introduced an automatic update checker which allows for either automatic or manual checking for new versions of AutoExit. A pop up box appears after opening the Console indicating that a new version is available

After clicking on Download, chose a location for the updated Add-in, in this case into a folder under WHS Software shared folder.

After using the Console to remove the older version the latest one is then installed like any other Add-in, could all this be done automatically? Well I am sure that Asoft will be working on this. 

AutoExit Client

Another significant change under the hood of AutoExit is the inclusion of a client for installation on each PC on your network. Richard Hay in his review of AutoExit  V1 mentioned  issues with configuring a PC to shut down, this wasn’t always straightforward due to security settings in Windows, he hoped that in the next release  users wouldn’t have to do any configuration manually.

Included in the download of the AutoExit Add-In is the AutoExit  client for installation on each machine on your network.

Installing the AutoExit client does away with the need for manual configuration for some of the features of AutoExit, like shutdown.

The client also provides a diagnostic facility and indicates which AutoExit functions will work on that client, at this time this does not include whether your PC is capable of Wake on Lan (WOL) - this still needs to be determined by checking out the PC BIOS and network cards to see if this feature is supported.

AutoExit Help

I am very impressed with the very comprehensive help files available from within the AutoExit Console, just what the first time user of this add in requires:

There is also a well written and detailed guide available as well.

AutoExit will appeal to those running and managing a home network. With the additional tools and the AutoExit client to simplify the setup, this add-in has gone from strength to strength. 

Now I have AutoExit up and running I am going to try and get my son on his PC downstairs to bring me a cup of tea using the pop up message feature, not sure that Asoft had this in mind but hey I need my cup of tea!

Download: AutoExit R2 Beta | Product Survey | Discussion and Support