The Windows Home Server Team is pleased to announce that Power Pack 3 will be available in all shipping languages (Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, and Spanish) on November 24^th, 2009. Power Pack 3 will be made available to existing users via Windows Update. Users need to have Windows Home Server with Power Pack 2 already installed on their home server. Power Pack 3 will automatically install as part of Windows Update if Automatic Updates is enabled on the home server.

As we’ve communicated in a past post, Power Pack 3 improves the Windows Home Server experience with Windows 7 and Windows Media Center by providing new features like: backup and restore of computers running Windows 7, Windows 7 Libraries integration, enhancements for Windows Media Center, and better support for netbook computers. Power Pack 3 will enable the most optimal experience for Windows 7 users on a Windows Home Server network.

“If you've recently upgraded to Windows 7, Windows Home Server Power Pack 3 is an essential download providing enhanced integration between the two platforms and a number of cool new features. Combine library support with enhanced features for Windows Media Center, and we're really starting to see Microsoft bring together the Windows Home Server and Windows 7 client experience so that your media can be stored on your home server and enjoyed seamlessly on TV, PC and Mobile devices with little effort from the user. The bad old days of copy, paste, convert and transcode may well be behind us,” says Microsoft Most Valued Professional (MVP) Terry Walsh of We Got Served.

Microsoft MVP Alex Kuretz of MediaSmartServer.net says “Windows Home Server Power Pack 3 makes storing and accessing your media easier by bringing all the content contained on your Home Server smoothly into your Windows 7 libraries. TV Archive is also a very nice feature that has allowed me to record TV shows and move them to my Home Server to be watched at a later time.”

Here are some details on what’s new:

Windows 7 Libraries integration

When you install the Windows Home Server Connector and log on a computer running Windows 7, you can access the Windows Home Server shared folders from the Windows 7 libraries.

Windows 7 Action Center backup warning suppression

After you install the Windows Home Server Connector to enable the home server backup for your computer running Windows 7, you can suppress the Action Center warning reminding you that Windows Backup has not been set up.

Windows 7 power settings

You can configure your computer running Windows 7 to wake up at a scheduled backup time and then go back to sleep after the backup finishes.

? Console support for Windows 7

Windows 7 is properly displayed as the operating system shown in the Computers & Backup tab.

Windows Search

Windows Search 4 is included to improve query search times, indexing times, and reliability. Extended Remote Discovery increases the efficiency of searching across all your libraries running Windows Search 4. Files encrypted with EFS are now supported.

TV archive

Windows Home Server can automatically archive recorded TV by moving your recordings from a Windows Media Center computer to your home server in the format of your choice. This enables playback in the correct format for your home computers and/or portable devices.

Console view

You can view information about your home server’s storage space, hard drives, backup status, and more from Windows Media Center.

Complete details are available in the Power Pack 3 Release Documentation.

We want to thank our community for all of their testing and feedback over these past months with the Power Pack 3 Beta. You validated that Power Pack 3 was ready for release. We like to think that we are building this product together – as a passionate community.

- The Windows Home Server Team

We’ve talked extensively about the improvements that Power Pack 3 for Windows Home Server will deliver for users.  We were proud to show off the beta code of Power Pack 3 at the recent CEDIA 2009 custom installer technology show, where we got lots of positive reception to the feature set.  It’s clear that the anticipation of using Windows Home Server with the upcoming Windows 7 client PC operating system is reaching feverish pitch!  OK, maybe that was a slight exaggeration…But the bottom line is that we’ve gotten tremendous feedback (and test coverage) from you, our enthusiasts, around Power Pack 3 – and we couldn’t be more excited.

This being said, our top priority is to ensure the absolute highest level of product quality, and to this end, we will continue with additional testing of the software. As with past software releases, our team will not ship the official final release of Power Pack 3 until the community has validated our work. We expect to deliver before the end of the year.

For those Windows 7 users who do not have the Beta installed, there are a few important scenarios they should be aware of. These scenarios can be addressed by downloading and installing the Power Pack 3 Beta for the most optimal experience for Windows 7 users on a Windows Home Server network:

• Restoring a full image of a Win7 client PC (or ‘bare metal restore’):  there are a few rare cases where a Win7 client PC may not be able to restore his or her full image backup from a Windows Home Server.  This has to do with how Windows 7 uses hard links for some system files.  Power Pack 3 beta fixes this issue.
• Windows 7 client PCs will not automatically wake up to do a backup:  Windows 7 users can work around this by doing manual backups, or also by turning on the wakeup timer in the Windows client Control Panel.  Power Pack 3 beta also fixes this issue.
• Mounting a backup hangs at 79% with Autoplay enabled:  Although we’ve seen only a few cases of this, Windows 7 users may see a stall during a file/folder restore operation, which is caused by Autoplay being triggered during the operation.  As a workaround, users can disable Autoplay in the Windows client Control Panel.  Power Pack 3 beta also fixes this issue.
• Cannot install the Windows Home Server Client PC Connector software on Windows 7 Starter Edition PCs:  while there currently isn’t a workaround for this, Power Pack 3 beta addresses this issue and allows users to install the Connector software correctly.

So the net result is that there are a number of reasons that Windows 7 users should check out the Power Pack 3 release – from great new features to fixes of the above technical issues.   For the optimal experience of running Windows 7 PCs on a Windows Home Server network, we point you to our Microsoft Connect site to download the current beta release of Power Pack 3:    https://connect.microsoft.com/WindowsHomeServer.  Enjoy!

- Posted on behalf of Dave Berkowitz

You may have the technology but are you using it? Maybe you’ve heard the “Better Together” story but you have not had a chance to really fully experience it. That is exactly what we wanted to show you at Cedia 2009. Cedia is the largest event of the year for custom installers to come and learn about new technology emerging in their industry. Think of Cedia as the CES for custom installers.

Windows Home Server teamed up with Windows Media Center, Windows 7 and Xbox to demonstrate how Microsoft technologies come together in the home. The booth was designed to be a replica of your home, your home office and your office away from home. This was done in an effort to emulate real working home scenarios. The picture below illustrates the booths layout:

The Office:

This networking nerve center demonstrated how users can access their content in various ways in their office, away from home or away from their living room. Attendees were shown such features as centralized storage, access to content on the go, Home Group, copying TV content from one Media Center to another and remote streaming. This is also where the Windows Home Server HP MediaSmart powered the entire booth, which included 9 extended Xbox’s & 6 tuners connected to the N9 Niveus high-end Media Center PC with the new AEP 2.0 technology (which allows for an increase from 5 extenders to 10 & 4 tuners to 8), with photos, videos and music content. The Niveus N9 was located in the theater room.

The Bedroom:

Your personal get away spot in your home should enable you access to all your content at whim. The bedroom revealed a portable Windows 7 Media Center on a Sony VAIO laptop and an Xbox 360 extender connected to a large display. Giving you the ability to watch your content, listen to a little music and even record TV without leaving the comfort of your own bed; maybe you just wanted to obtain the score of your favorite team. The Windows 7 Media Center laptop demonstrated the new Netflix tile in Windows Media Center.

Family Room:

With only an Xbox 360 connected to your large screen TV, you have gaming and entertainment from one device. The family room is the central place to come together and watch TV, stream movies, view photos and even play some music. With the Xbox 360, you can play a few video games while streaming music from the home server. With the recent Xbox 360 update, Netflix enables you to stream movies and TV shows from the internet!

Theater Room:

The theater room is probably the most impressive part of the home, aside from the Windows Home Server being in the office serving all of the music, videos and photos content. Enjoy the luxury of your surround sound while playing Blu-ray movies, enjoying television, home movies or blaring music until your ears hurt. Be amazed as 8 different tuners record content at the same time and store it on the HP MediaSmart Server powered by Windows Home Server. Travel to any of the 9 different Xbox 360’s in extender mode and watch the recently recorded TV or change the channel to a more enjoyable show.

Cedia Announcements:

Let’s talk about the announcements and some of the technology making this all possible.

Windows Home Server:

Power Pack 3 was a big part of the show. This enables the use of libraries in Windows 7, automatic archive of TV content (which is very important with 8 tuners capturing content constantly) and single file restore in Windows 7. The Zune and Windows Phone compression feature allowed TV content to be played on your mobile devices. It was very exciting to see attendee’s reactions to these new features!

S1Digital announced a new Digital Entertainment Platform, which provides centralized archiving, storage and distribution of HD movies, live and recorded HD television, videos, music, photos and more. This is all based on the Windows Home Server platform.

Windows Media Center:

Probably one of the biggest announcements at the show was the ability to add your own Digital Cable Tuners to your PC. Before, you needed to purchase a computer with a special BIOS to be able to record digital TV.

CETON showed off their new single card that has 4 tuners with-in the S1 Media Center running the theater room and an extender. This single card could record 4 channels at once. They also have a 6 channel version here.

Here are a few other show announcements from Windows Media Center. To read more please visit here.

• Switched Digital Video (SDV) support added to Windows Media Center.
• End Customers Can Now Add Digital Cable Tuners With CableCARD to Their PCs
• Digital Cable customers can now enjoy more TV portability in Windows Media Center
• New Firmware for ATI TV Wonder Digital Cable Tuners
• Windows Media Center Features in Windows 7 highlighted

The Windows Home Server team was cited as an example in a recently released whitepaper titled, “How Microsoft listens and responds to customers”. The Customer and Partner Experience site provides an overview of Microsoft’s company-wide system of measuring our efforts to encourage strong customer focus from senior executives down through the entire employee base.  An excerpt from the whitepaper is below.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Microsoft Connect: A Product Feedback Community

When it comes to understanding how Microsoft products perform in real-world situations and identifying ways that we can improve our products, there’s no better barometer than immediate feedback from customers and partners. To enable this, we have consolidated many of our listening systems into Microsoft Connect, a centralized feedback platform for product teams that enables customers and partners to interact directly with Microsoft developers and product managers.

The Microsoft Connect Web site (http://connect.microsoft.com) has more than 1.4 million registered users, averages over 1 million visits per month, and has delivered more than 8.5 million downloads of applications and documents. Virtually every major business group in the company has a presence on Microsoft Connect, with more than 1,900 programs—including betas, Technical Adoption Programs and Customer Advisory Councils—currently hosted on the site.

For example, the Windows Home Server team’s Connect programs have been instrumental in helping developers improve the product. “We’re constantly using Connect to answer questions, discover technical bugs and get the right feedback into our system,” says Jonas Svensson, Windows Home Server community program manager. “Connect helps us engage with a vibrant community of users on an ongoing basis. We provide them with access to early versions of Windows Home Server. In return, Connect participants submit suggestions on how to improve the product, which gets timely feedback into our system.”

Svensson’s team recently released the Power Pack 3 beta for Windows Home Server through Connect. The Power Pack is an update that provides fixes for known issues and adds new features to improve the functionality of Windows Home Server, including enhancements for Windows 7–based computers. “Connect has allowed us to get this important update into the hands of tens of thousands of users who can thoroughly test it out and report back on their experience,” says Svensson. “We deliver much-anticipated product functionality, and our users are helping ensure great integration with Windows 7 at the time of release.”

CJ Saretto, Senior Program Manager provides an overview of Power Pack 3 features including how it will improve the Windows Home Server experience with Windows 7 and Windows Media Center. Fan Zhang, Development Lead on the Windows Home Server team in China also gave his input on several new features including Backup Warning Suppression, and Windows Search 4. (Keep in mind that Windows 7 is compatible with the current version of Windows Home Server, but Power Pack 3 will offer additional enhancements).

It has been just over 1 month since the Power Pack 3 BETA was made available to the public and we have seen great participation. We have received helpful user feedback and the work toward a final release in the end of October is looking good.

The video is posted here.

If you are still interested in trying out the Power Pack 3 BETA and becoming a participant, you can sign up on Microsoft Connect: https://connect.microsoft.com/WindowsHomeServer.

-Nicole

The Windows Home Server Team has announced today the beta of Windows Home Server Power Pack 3 (PP3). And if you’re running Windows 7, Windows Home Server PP3 comes with several new features designed to take advantage key Windows 7 features:

• Full Image-based Backups of Windows 7 PCs. After the Windows Home Server Connector is installed on your Windows 7 PCs, Action Center should no longer display that your files are not being backed up.
• Windows 7 Libraries Support. Music, Photos and Videos shared folders from your Windows Home Server will be added to Windows 7 Libraries. Content saved to these shared folders will be able to be quickly accessed through your Windows 7 Libraries. And any application, like Windows Media Player and Windows Media Center, will be able to access content saved on your Windows Home Server through Libraries as well.
• Windows Search 4 is now included. With Windows Search 4, PP3 offers improved query search times, indexing times and reliability. Easy search through a Library in Windows 7 with files stored in multiple locations.
• Windows Media Center Enhancements. Archive old recorded TV shows onto your Windows Home Server in a variety of formats. Use Console Quick View to see statistics about your Windows Home Server through Windows Media Center.

More in-depth information on these features – see their blog post on PP3.

The Windows Home Server Team does not yet have a final release date for PP3 however they are shooting to have PP3 available shortly before GA of Windows 7. If you’re running Windows Home Server and have several Windows 7 PCs – I encourage you to give PP3 a try and help the Windows Home Server Team make PP3 rock.

To beta test PP3, please sign up as a beta participant of the Windows Home Server program on Microsoft Connect. Once you’ve signed up, you’ll be able to download PP3.

Windows Home Server Power Pack 3 will be a free update to existing Windows Home Server users via Windows Update.

I’ll be installing PP3 on my HP MediaSmart Server EX470 either tonight or sometime over the weekend. I’m stoked about the Windows 7 integration!