Windows Home Server Language Change

Some weeks ago, I ordered (with some difficulties) the English restore disc for my Fujitsu Siemens Scaleo Home Server. Originally it was equipped with German discs, but since most of Microsoft Betas are available only in English, I wanted to switch.
In the end, FSC support posted the ISO on a server for me to download. Nice enough, the disc had PP1 already integrated.

I started my server in restore mode and did the restore of the first partition (very important, otherwise you lose data!). But then the problems started. Although all files and shares were restored, it was not possible to join client computers. Here's an excerpt of what I asked on the forums of FSC Scaleo Home Server support and Microsoft Connect Windows Home Server:

[...]
After the reboot, the client should be connected/joined to the server. Server is found, I enter the password, and get the message "The operation cannot be completed at this time. Please try again later. If the problem persists, please contact Product Support" and nothing goes. Reboot of the server and the clients don't help, nor do different operating systems (Vista SP1, SP2beta, Windows 7 Beta).

Eventviewer in the console shows an interessting error: Right after the reboot, the creation of the ssl-certificate fails. (A fatal error occurred while creating an SSL server credential., EventID 36871, Source Schannel). Though I can create it manually with C:\Program Files\Windows Home Server\servercerts.exe, nothing works.

With the tips from http://blogs.msdn.com/eldar/archive/2007/04/28/windows-home-server-client-join-troubleshoooting-hints.aspx I found out, that the public key in WHSMaster.publickey is searched in the German path C:\Programme\Windows Home Server instead of C:\Program Files\Windows Home Server. I created the folders, copied the file, didn't help, even after reboot.

I exported the certificate from the certificate manager - no match with the one in WHSMaster.publickey. So I replaced the files with the exported one, didn't help.

I imported the certificate manually on the client, nothing. I deleted the client backups and client entries, nothing. Restore of the server and earlier replacing of the public key didn't help either. The certificates of the IIS-sites, the server, the client, all match.

[...]

So far, so bad. Seems that when replacing the versions not everything is copied/overwritten correctly. Of course, if I reset the server to factory settings, it might work, but I don't want to lose my files.

Oh, there's another remainder of the german installation, additionaly to the certificate path. Logs are written to C:\Dokumente und Einstellungen\All Users\Anwendungsdaten\Microsoft\Windows Home Server\logs instead of Documents and Settings...

[...]


It seems that on the FSC forum, no help is provided by official supporters - and I got no replies from any user. On Microsoft Connect however, I got a reply, which seemed to confirm my worst expectations: Language change is only possible in a clean install, migration is not possible. Here's the reply:

Thanks for the feedback item. At this time, the scenario you described is not supported. The only supported way to change server language is by a clean install. This is due to the fact that some language specific information is stored on the Archiver brings back the old WHS German settings, which breaks things. For example: - transport has the full path to EnrolDLL in the registry, which is no longer valid and may cause the certificate problems - Software is the same in English and German else OOBE would fail immediately Regarding the 28% AU problem - We see in setup log OOBE installed 48 updates just fine, could be a temporary glitch in WU or could be related to switching the language somehow. We suggest that you save your share data first then do a factory reset. -Windows Home Server Team

This reply however contained the little piece of information that I needed: ARCHIVER. This is the place where the information is stored that has to be retained when doing a restore - obviously it can't be on the primary partition, this one gets overwritten.
So, where might this be?

I looked around and found the file whs.reg in D:\folders\{378AE094-F4CA-4D9B-BDA5-649D6F738276}. The same file also appears in C:\fs\*\DE\folders\{378AE094-F4CA-4D9B-BDA5-649D6F738276} - I know WHS does its thing with tombstones and original files, I assumed the one on C:\fs is the original. The * is a "drive letter", actually the mounting point of one of the secondary drives.

Back to the whs.reg: It's a normal registry exported file that contains all the paths and names that WHS needs to know. And, as expected, the paths were absolute.
In German Windows Versions, the folder "Documents and Settings" is called "Dokumente und Einstellungen", the folder "Application Data" is called "Anwendungsdaten" and "C:\Program Files" is "C:\Programme".

Time for search and replace. (Obviously I made a backup of the file - but I had only a vague idea how to replace it if it wouldn't work) Well, time to jump of the cliff and hope there's water. And there was!

The next restore went as it should, it restored all of my shares and - most important - allowed me to join the client computer again!

Now, everything worked fine till I started the Windows Updates - other errors appeared because some stuff still seems to look in the "C:\Programme\Windows Home Server" folder - time for the final blow:
I used Sysinternals (well, Microsofts) junction to make a hardlink. I created the folder C:\Programme and in it, I ran at the command line:
junction "Windows Home Server" "C:\Program Files\Windows Home Server"

End of story, it's running for several weeks now without problems.