Ok, as I've mentioned previously, Windows Home Server allows Remote Access to the PC's on your home LAN, that support being a Remote Desktop Host.  You can also access the Server after you log into the web interface and go to the Computers tab, but...... you only get the Windows Home Server Console, not the full Home Server Desktop.  There are two work-arounds for this.

 

1) If you're behind a hardware router, forward TCP/IP Port 3389 to the Windows Home Server machine's LAN IP Address.  This way you can use the Remote Desktop client to access your Windows Home Server's desktop directly. 

 

2) On the Windows Home Server (either from the console or via Remote Desktop), open Windows Explorer and go to C:\Inetpub\Remote and locate the rdpload.aspx file.  Open this file in Notepad.  Locate the following two lines:

 

MsRdpClient.SecuredSettings.StartProgram = "HomeServerConsole.exe -r";
MsRdpClient.SecuredSettings.WorkDir = "c:\\Program Files\\Windows Home Server";

 

These tell the browser based RDP session to use HomeServerConsole.exe as the "shell", with a command line parameter to tell it not to show the Minimize and Exit buttons.

 

Replace the two lines, above, with the following two lines:

 

MsRdpClient.SecuredSettings.StartProgram = "Explorer.exe";
MsRdpClient.SecuredSettings.WorkDir = "c:\\Windows";

 

Which tells the RDP session to use explorer.exe as the "Shell", which it normally is anyway. You can make other changes to the RDP settings, such as setting a timeout for idle sessions and others.  Be careful though, if you don't know what you're changing.

Now, when you access your Windows Home Server from outside your LAN using the web interface, when you select Connect to my home server, from the Computers tab, you'll see the standard Desktop inside your browser window.