Advanced Admin Console 2011 Release Candidate Now Available

It’s been a few months since we last talked about the beta for Advanced Admin Console 2011. Well today the release candidate has been made available.

Here is the update:

The Advanced Admin Console Beta 2 has been out since March. Several thousand people have downloaded and used it since then and have given valuable feedback on its features and reported some minor bugs.

As a result, the Release Candidate (Version 0.9.5) includes a number of fixes, changes and some new functionality (see changelog below). Most importantly, I’ve decided to no longer offer AAC 2011 entirely for free.

I’ve been working on the Advanced Admin Console and my other first-generation Windows Home Server AddIns since December 2007. During the last year I have spent countless hours on developing AAC 2011 from scratch to make it one of the most popular and useful AddIns for the 2nd generation of Windows Home and Small Business Servers. I hope you’ll understand my decision to charge for the new version in order to compensate for my work.

Licensing changes

AAC 2011 will remain free for use on Windows Home Server 2011 and Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials if it’s not domain joined. However, on Windows Small Business Server 2011 Essentials and domain-joined Windows Storage Server 2008 Essentials (=business users) the latest version of AAC 2011 can only be used until December 1, 2011. After that date, business users must either purchase a license (pricing to be announced) or uninstall the AddIn. On Windows Home Server 2011 and non-domain-joined Windows Storage Server 2008 R2, AAC 2011 will work until after that date but switch to reduced functionality mode. In reduced functionality mode the Favorites Tab is disabled which means you can no longer access custom links and shortcuts. By purchasing a license you can keep using the full functionality of AAC 2011 on these platforms as well.

Summary of licensing changes

To sum it up, in regards to licensing the latest version of AAC 2011 includes the following changes:

• Users are categorized in two groups: Home and Business. Users of Windows Home Server 2011 and non-domain-joined Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials are regarded as home users. Users of Windows Small Business Server 2011 Essentials and domain-joined Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials are regarded as business users.
• AAC 2011 has a trial period of 30 days (extended to December 1, 2011 for the Release Candidate). During the trial period the full functionality can be used on all platforms.
• When the trial period expires, AAC 2011 will switch to reduced functionality mode for home users and cease to function for business users. In reduced functionality mode the Favorites Tab is no longer available.
• Home and business users can purchase a license to use the full functionality of AAC 2011 for an unlimited time.
• Pricing is to be announced shortly.

Changelog for release 0.9.5:

• FIXED: When running the Dashboard from a client PC resizing the Dashboard window may result in improper drawing of the AAC portion of the Dashboard window.
• FIXED: Update notification didn’t work for some users.
• FIXED: An exception occurred when a favorite was created via the web page context menu.
• CHANGED: User interface polished (Removal of MS Office style context menus, other minor changes).
• ADDED: IE ESC notification can now be disabled.
• ADDED: Open, Open in new window and Properties now available for folder in Favorite Tree.
• ADDED: Support for Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials.
• ADDED: German localization.
• ADDED: About dialog.
• ADDED: Licensing system, Activation wizard.

Download

Go to the downloads page to download the Advanced Admin Console 2011 Release Candidate.