I had modest plans for my home server. I installed Windows Small Business Server 2011 Essentials awhile back and since then I haven’t done much with its abilities. In fact, I’ve turned off avoided some of its built-in capabilities and looking to disable more.

Why?

It’s primarily due to the lack of memory on the server. This old Socket 939 system caps out a 2 GB of DDR RAM and that’s a paltry amount for Windows SBS 2011 Essentials to work with — especially when I have other services I’d like to run on there as well.

I don’t use Active Directory, but it’s running and I don’t believe I can turn it off without repercussions. I’ve also stopped using the built-in “Connector” software because it was 1) not working with Mac OS X Lion and/or 2) it forces the client’s default gateway to the home server which isn’t what I want at all.

It turns out that all I want from my home server is a file server with media serving capabilities, a web interface and WSUS. And you know what met all that without the added bloat? Windows Home Server 2011. Unfortunately I sold my license away and thus I’m left reading whitepapers, forum posts and blog posts looking for ways to cut memory use down.

The next logical step is to build a faster server with a lot more memory to work with. I then can turn the server I have now to a FreeNAS box. I hear it’s pretty good.

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With Skyrim done, I moved onto Shadows of the Damned which I’m enjoying quite a bit. The gameplay is reminding me of Dead Space with a roll mechanic. My only complaint with the game thus far is the segmentation of the levels; they’re too short.