Microsoft's digital hub for the home uncovered

With Windows Home Server, Microsoft aims to bring order to consumers' messy digital lives--and to define a new product category.

Company Chairman Bill Gates launched the personal server push during his keynote speech at the Consumer Electronics Show on Sunday, saying that partner Hewlett-Packard plans to offer an HP MediaSmart Server based on the design this fall.

The Windows Home Server is for households that want to share storage among multiple PCs or Xboxes game consoles. It will provide automatic backup, easier storage expansion and connectivity among different devices, including Zune media players, Gates said.

"If you have got multiple PCs, then you want files that are available all the time, no matter which PCs are turned on or off. And you'd also like to have a server that, when you just add storage, it automatically takes advantage of that," Gates noted in an interview with CNET News.com.

Since the launch, more concrete details of Windows Home Server have dribbled out.
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