As part of yesterday's announcement about Windows Home Server (WHS) Power Pack 2 (PP2, codenamed "Snoqualmie" -- see my overview), Microsoft also revealed that WHS is now available on MSDN so that developers can get their hands on the code and start making Add-ins. In concert with this information, Microsoft is now promoting its WHS Add-ins. First, the info from the WHS blog:
A key benefit of Windows Home Server is the versatility and power it offers as a development platform. Even when Windows Home Server software was still in the beta stage, we published a software development kit (SDK) so that 3 party developers could develop interesting add-ins for the product.
There are currently 100+ add-ins developed for Windows Home Server (up from 70+ in January of this year). We have a dedicated Windows Home Server Add-ins page on the Microsoft web site.
That Add-ins page is something that all WHS users should at least check out, though I'd point out that anyone with a first-gen HP machine (and/or a box with just 512 MB of RAM) is going to run into immediate performance issues if they load up the box with too many Add-ins. It's interesting to me that, of the top downloads list, AV and disk defragmentation are well represented. But there are what look like some gems in there, such as a Recorded TV Manager for Media Center users.
Update: Be sure to check out We Got Served's Windows Home Server Add-ins page as well.