How to add Windows Home Server shared folders to Live Mesh

Live Mesh is great for syncing content between devices such as Netbooks and desktop PCs but not many people seem to talk about using it with Windows Home Server. I think of Windows Home Server as my personal cloud and Mesh as the web extension to that. So you could have Recorded TV folders of machines not on the same network synced over the Internet with Windows Home Server

Installing Mesh on Windows Home Server is very much like installing on a desktop system with a couple of extra steps

First connect to your Windows Home Server using Remote Desktop. Then from the remote session open up Internet Explorer and browse to Mesh.com and signin with your Windows Live ID.

Once signed in you will notice that the Mesh devices do not display correctly and this is due to Internet Explorer being locked down on Windows Server 2003 (which WHS is based). So double click on the Internet Zones on the IE status bar, click on Trusted Site and click on the Site button then add Mesh.com to the Trusted Zones

Then from the Mesh Devices page click Add Device and install the Mesh addin

Once the Mesh addin is installed and you have signed in your Windows Home Server will be part of your Live Mesh.

To add a shared folder to the Mesh you have to go through the Windows file system as you can’t add a shared folder from the shared folders shortcut on the desktop. Via My Computer navigate to D:\shares and then you can right click on the shared folder and add it to the Mesh

By default Mesh syncs folders with the online Mesh storage so if your syncing folders with lots of media in (like Recorded TV) you can tell Mesh not to sync with it with the 5GB limited online store. Right click on the folder select Live Mesh Options and Change Sync settings

Then change the Live Desktop device to “Never with this device”

Having said that if you have enough free space with your Mesh storage I would recommend leaving it synced with the Live Desktop as it gives you a cloud backup of the folder

Now the WHS folder is synced with Mesh you could sync a Recorded TV folder of multiple machines that are not on the same network