By Philip Churchill on January 07th, 2008
Power Pack 1 Video
Windows Home Server Power Pack Announced
Courtesy of enthusiast site Channel 10 is a video with Todd Headrick from the Home Server team explaining some details on Power Pack 1.
By Philip Churchill on January 07th, 2008
Power Pack 1 for Windows Home Server
Today at CES 2008 in Las Vegas Microsoft announced details on Windows Home Server Power Pack 1 (PP1). Formally known as UR1 or Update Release 1, PP1 will be available for free via Windows Update/Microsoft Update when it becomes available in the first half of this year (2008).
So why a Power Pack? This minor release for Windows Home Server is more than a Service Pack (which should only contain bug fixes and improvements to existing features) as it also includes additional features, so the WHS Team choose Power Pack as the naming convention from the Xbox team.
So, what’s in there?
Vista 64 bit Support
With PP1 installed the Windows Home Server Connector can now be installed on home computers running Windows Vista x64 operating systems, which is good news for the Vista 64 bit users.
Windows Home Server Connector
Functionality is now added to detect that the version of the Windows Home Server Connector software is aligned with the version of Windows Home Server software. So users using an outdated version of the Connector software will be prompted to update the copy either on the server or client machine.
Other details include the Connector setup infrastructure has been revamped to support upgrade and servicing. The Connector tray icon should no longer cause a flickering issue when auto-hide task bar is enabled and better guidance is now provided when the home computer clock and home server clock differ significantly during the Connector installation.
Backup the Server
Another new feature is that you can now backup the server itself by backing up your server’s shared folders and the backup database to an external hard disk. While adding a hard drive to the Windows Home Server, you are now presented with an option to use the hard drive for backing up the home server. Once this option is selected, the home server will appear in the Computers & Backup tab, where you can decide what you want to store on this external hard drive.
Remote Access
When adding/editing a user in the Home Server Console, in addition to enabling remote access for that user, there is now a drop down list box that allows the home server administrator to specify whether the user will have access to the computers tab, the shared folders tab, or both tabs when logged in with Windows Home Server Remote Access.
A new ‘Views’ drop-down list is added for the Shared Folders tab in remote access which allows the files in a shared folder to be displayed either as a list of files (‘Details’ view) or as thumbnails (‘Icons’ view). In ‘Icons’ view, the majority of the picture files will be represented as a thumbnails, and the rest of the non-picture files and folders will be displayed as large icons.
File upload functionality has been improved for users of Internet Explorer 6 and 7 and users can drag and drop multiple files directly into an upload area or select multiple files in the open file dialog for upload. Additionally upload progress reporting has been improved, with the addition of a progress bar and individual file upload status and the ability to cancel the multiple upload has been added as well.
When downloading multiple files, the users are now given the option to package the files in a self extracting executable (.exe) file in addition to being able to store them in a ZIP file.
Finally the Routers and Domain name configuration details dialogs in the Remote Access Settings page have been reworked to include more descriptive status, and contextual help links for failed tests and the ability for large file uploads to complete before the remote session times out has been implemented.
Backup Database Repair Wizard
If the backup database on the home server has an inconsistency error, the user can now use the backup database repair wizard to correct this error. The repair wizard can be launched either through the Backup page in Settings, or by clicking on the backup database inconsistency error notification.
WHS Power Management
A new option has been added to the Windows Home Server Connector tray icon that allows the user to enable or disable the home computer from waking up for backup if it is in sleep or hibernation mode.
Media Sharing
Windows Media Player playlists pointing media files stored on a home server should now play correctly via Windows Media Connect when these playlists are copied over to a home server and shared out via media sharing.
Add-In Crashes
The Windows Home Server Console has been made more resilient to poorly written Home Server Add-Ins and should eventually load even if one or more installed Add-Ins is not functioning correctly.
More Languages Supported
Chinese and Japanese are now supported in Windows home Server.
All looks good to me. It seems that the WHS Team has answered most of the suggestions in this first update and fixed many of the bugs too, but we are going to have to wait for a few months yet until we can get it (as explained earlier) as at the moment it is only available for beta testing to Microsoft employees and to MVPs – What a good start to the New Year 
By Philip Churchill on January 07th, 2008
Home Servers to reach 4.5 million households by 2012
In a soon-to-be-published research report, Forrester Research analyst J.P. Gownder figures that home servers (not just those running Microsoft’s home server product) will reach 4.5 million households by 2012. That’s up from just 190,000 such servers last year.
Gownder said “That’s a pretty good growth rate,” , though he added that “it’s still a niche product, at that point,” with his forecast representing home servers in only about 3 percent of American homes five years from now.
He said the rise in multiple-PC homes, the increase of broadband, and the fact that people now store their music and photos on computers creates the necessary conditions for a home server to be practical. “We really are at a point in history where a home server might actually make sense,” Gownder said.
But, he said, it’s still a tough sell. Most people don’t know what a server is. And even those who do have an understanding of servers from work may not have such a favorable impression. “They know that it goes down sometimes,” Gownder said. “They know that it causes problems for them.”
The one thing that could speed up the slow path to the mainstream, Gownder said, is if a cable company or other TV provider chose to deploy home servers as part of their service. That concept is not so far-fetched, given the fact that providers are having a tough time keeping up with on-demand TV requirements as content shifts to high definition. Such an approach could lead to growth 10 times what Gownder has forecast.
Microsoft’s Steven VanRoekel said the product’s sales have exceeded the company’s expectations.”It’s tens of thousands,” VanRoekel said, “which in a month and a half is good.”
One area that Microsoft may look at to boost the popularity of the Home Server is having the software work better in households that have both Macs and Windows PCs and that’s something we are taking a close look at, VanRoekel said.
More details from CNET News.com
By Philip Churchill on January 07th, 2008
WHS – One guys insight into the future
Over at CNET, a guy by the name of Greg Hoza posted this under a thread for 2008 predictions on their forums:
I predict that (qualifying): For families with more than 2 computers in the home that the WINDOWS HOME SERVER will become as common as the IPod. I say this in light of the advent of digital multimedia HD televisions and A/V components that accommodate media streaming from a Network Attached Storage (NAT) or shared computer hard drive. Coupled with the desire to protect important data (like photos, home videos, financial records, etc.) as well as the complete contents of a hard drive on a client computer, the Windows Home Server will become an integral component in a home based computer system. With analogue television broadcasting soon to go off the air and the need to replace millions of A/V components with digitally based software and hardware electronics, the home computer/AV systems will be redesigned to incorporate digital media streaming and storage. Safeguarding that digital content will become paramount. And finally, ancillary add-ins to the Windows Home Server concept will grow to include automated home security (remote monitoring, video surveillance, etc.) as well as simple automated tasks that homeowners will come to depend on (like turning on and off lights, monitoring door locks, energy use – thermostat, and other growing automated home and green industries).
I say all this because we have no longer (sadly I admit) the family environment of the Walton’s, with personal family interaction at the forefront, but have become a fragmented, time-budgeted, efficiency conscious, and somewhat narcissistic society. Notwithstanding our present cultural habits, technology like the Windows Home Server and other novel technologies can either become a reinforcing agent for either kind of lifestyle depending on how it is used. For me the Windows Home Server gets me away from the computer (and computer maintenance utilities) and back in the family room to enjoy a family home movie played from my Windows Home Server of choice, the HP MediaSmart Server. Goodnight Aaron, goodnight John Boy.
By Philip Churchill on January 07th, 2008
MediaSmart Server hits Circuit City and Best Buy Shelves
Windows Home Server has been hard to find on retail shelves, but Microsoft product manager Joel Sider has stated that HP’s MediaSmart Server will be available in the US at Circuit City stores this week and is expected to be on Best Buy shelves later in the month.
By Philip Churchill on January 07th, 2008
Power Pack 1 for Windows Home Server Announced
The Windows Home Server Team Blog have details on Power Pack 1 for Windows Home Server, the first minor release for WHS that will ship in the first half of this year (2008).
More details later today. In the meantime, check out the post here.
By Philip Churchill on January 07th, 2008
Add-In: OnTheFlyUnzipper Updated
The German Home Server Blog has the details that developer Alexander Köplinger has updated his add-in OnTheFlyUnzipper for January (2008). The add-in allows you to zip up (or rar) hundreds of files together and upload them to your Windows Home Server. The add-in will then automatically uncompress the files. Saving you time, bandwidth and of course megabytes within your upload.
The updated version includes the following:
- Sub-folders are now monitored
- GUI is more user-friendly
- Ability to start / stop the service
- Button in the settings for backup / restore
- Changes to the source code
The add-in and an English PDF users guide can be downloaded from here.
By Philip Churchill on January 07th, 2008
Integrate Windows Update Services (WSUS) into Windows Home Server
We Got Served has a tutorial on how to integrate Windows Update Services v3 (WSUS) into Windows Home Server. WSUS is a local copy of Windows Update/Microsoft Update that is stored on the server and automatically installs the updates to all the other machines on your network. The tutorial is written by Windows Small Business Server MVP, Kevin Royalty and is available for download as a .doc document.
More info here.
By Philip Churchill on January 07th, 2008
The Week in Review – Sunday's Summery
What’s been going on this week. Here’s your chance to catch-up if you missed something!
- Add-In: WHS Customizer – Change your Servers home page website image
- Developer Jay Hinrichs has developed a settings add-in for Windows Home Server called WHS Customizer. Jay’s goal is to add little utilities and hacks that will allow you to customize your server machine. The first utility he has included allows you to change the servers home page website image via…
- HP Media Vault mv2100 and mv5100
- Yikes! The MediaSmart Server has been chopped in half….or has it?Actually no. It’s the new Linux powered NAS device from HP known as the Media Vault. Available in 2 configurations the entry-level mv2100 comes with a 500Gb hard drive, and the mv5100 has two 500GB or 750GB drives. Additional…
- 2 New Knowledge Base Articles
- Two new Knowledge base articles have been added for Windows Home Server. The first is How to troubleshoot the “Backup service is not running” error message in Windows Home Server (946339) and covers five different methods to troubleshoot the “Backup service is not running” error message or…
- HP adding Streaming, Vista 64-bit Support and Anti-Virus
- HP has got some more enhancements coming to its MediaSmart Server this February for free which will be available via download. The 3 updates include server protection via McAfee Antivirus which will be free for the first seven months. PacketVideo technology will enhance the the media streaming…
- Latest Data Corruption Status
- One of the benefits of now being an MVP is that tonight I had the opportunity to take part in the monthly discussion with the WHS Team which highlighted that the data corruption issue which affects some users will NOT effect those using just the one hard drive. So, only those of you using multiple…
- Fujitsu Siemens Scaleo Home Server Demo
If you have looked at the Fujitsu Siemens Scaleo Home Server page lately you may have noticed that they have but up a flash demo that takes you through the features of the unit. View the demo from here.
- More MVP’s
- Today four new MVP’s were announced, bring the total to seven. MVP’s or Microsoft Most Valuable Professional’s are people that have made significant contributions to various technical communities (in this case WHS) throughout the year.So congratulations to Andrew Edney author of the Windows…
- Happy New Year
- MSWHS.com was formed back in June when we started this site with our first post entitled Good Evening, Afternoon or Morning – Wherever you are. It’s been a great year and after numerous beta builds Windows Home Server was finally released to an eagerly waiting public in the later part of 2007.So…
- Monitor WHS Events and Auto Reboot Server
- How would you like a piece of software that monitors your Application, System, Security and WHS event logs on Home Server, and then sends an alert to your email address or mobile device and then even has the ability to reboot Home Server if a critical system failure is detected.Well we have info for…
- Print from WHS when away from Home
- MyHomeServer.com has posted an article on how to share your WHS connected printer over the Internet. The 16 step article takes you through the steps necessary to print when away from home – Read it here.
By Philip Churchill on January 06th, 2008
Add-In: WHS Customizer – Change your Servers home page website image
Developer Jay Hinrichs has developed a settings add-in for Windows Home Server called WHS Customizer. Jay’s goal is to add little utilities and hacks that will allow you to customize your server machine. The first utility he has included allows you to change the servers home page website image via a simple 3 step process and includes a built-in library that stores all the images that have been created. Jay adds that in the following months he will add additional features to the add-in along with improving the image changer module also.
WHS Customizer can be download from here.
