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It’s the Windows Home Server Power Pack 3 Press Release!

By on July 17, 2009 in Windows Home Server

It’s finally out in the open – Windows Home Server Power Pack 3 is in beta and ready for you to test. Here’s Microsoft’s press release which we received a short time ago:

Good morning:

I wanted to let you know that today we are announcing Windows Home Server Power Pack 3 Beta, which improves the Windows Home Server experience with Windows 7 and Windows Media Center by providing the following new features: Backup and restore of computers running Windows 7, Windows 7 Libraries integration, enhancements for Windows Media Center, and better support for netbook computers.

We are targeting users that are running Windows 7 Release Candidate on their home computer and already have Windows Home Server. Beta participants will need to join the Windows Home Server program on Microsoft Connect in order to download the Power Pack 3 Beta. https://connect.microsoft.com/WindowsHomeServer

Below is an excerpt of the blog post that will be published to the Windows Home Server Team Blog, Windows Home Server Power Pack 3 BETA.

Timing of the Power Pack 3 final release has not been determined. With the help of Beta Testers, we hope to release the update prior to the Windows 7 General Availability date of October 22.  Power Pack 3 will be a free update to existing Windows Home Server users via Windows Update.

New in Power Pack 3 Beta

Windows 7 Backup & Recovery

Windows Home Server performs a full image-based backup of Windows 7-based computers, allowing for a complete computer recovery in the case of a hard drive failure, or restoration of a single file or folder in the event of accidental deletion or loss.  After the Windows Home Server Connector software has been installed on a computer running Windows 7, Windows 7 Backup warnings will be suppressed and users will no longer receive a notification to back up their computer.  Windows Home Server can back up Windows XP SP2 or later, Windows Vista and Windows 7-based computers.

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Windows 7 – Backup
Windows Home Server completes an automatic image-based backup of Windows-based computers every day.

Windows 7 Libraries

Power Pack 3 Beta will add Music, Photos and Videos shared folders on the home server to Windows 7 Libraries making the content available for applications such as Windows Explorer, Windows Media Center, Windows Media Player and other applications that use Windows 7 Libraries.  This allows users to quickly access all their content in one organized place that is always available, searchable and expandable.  Users can also search a specific library without having to know where the files are stored.

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Windows 7 – Libraries – Pictures
Windows Home Server content is automatically added to Windows 7 after installing the Windows Media Center Connector software.

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Windows 7 – Windows Explorer Jump List – Music Library
Users access the libraries through Jump Lists by simply selecting Music, Videos or Photos.  All content is accessible from one organized location.

Windows Search

Windows Search 4 has been included with Power Pack 3 Beta to improve query search times, indexing times and reliability. If users are searching across multiple computers, extended remote discovery increases the efficiency of searching across all document libraries.  Files encrypted with Encrypting File System (EFS) are now supported with search.

The screenshot below is an example of searching across a music library where files are located in multiple places:  the home computer Music folder, the home computer Public Music folder, and the home server Music shared folder.  Users can add other locations to Windows 7 Libraries.

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Windows 7 – Libraries – Music – Searching for Aerosmith music content on the home server
Searching for content in the library folder will not only search the home computer but also search the home server.

Power Pack 3 Beta makes Windows Home Server compatible with netbook computers that have small screen sizes and low resolution.  A home server makes a great storage and backup solution for ultra-portable computers.

Windows Media Center Enhancements

Last March, Power Pack 2 added functionality that allowed Windows Media Center and Media Center Extenders to easily access the content on a home server.  Power Pack 3 Beta builds on this functionality.  When the Windows Home Server Connector software is installed or updated on a Windows Media Center computer, the next time a user starts Windows Media Center they will be prompted to install the Windows Media Center Connector.   Users will notice a new Home Server selection in Windows Media Center menu.

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Windows Media Center view – Home Server

TV Archiving

The TV Archive tile in Windows Media Center will give users the option to move recorded TV content to the home server in a variety of resolutions.  The recorded TV shows are archived in the correct resolution for the type of device that will be used for playback.   TV Archive is optimized for Windows Media Center computers, Windows Mobile-based phones, and the Zune player, however, any device capable of playing WMV files can take advantage of this feature.

· TV – Original Resolution

· Windows Mobile – 320 x 240, 500 Kbps, .WMV

· Zune – 640 x 480, 1500 Kbps, .WMV

Users can select individual TV shows, a series of shows, or all TV recordings to automatically be moved to the home server.  Because Windows Home Server storage space can be easily expanded, users can keep all the TV shows that they want in their collection.

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Windows Media Center view – Home Server – TV Archive view

Console Quick View

Console Quick View allows users to see statistics about the home server through Windows Media Center and Windows Media Center Extenders.  This is a convenient way to view many aspects of the home server without needing to access the Windows Home Server Console.  This feature allows users to view and monitor a number of home server indicators:

· Storage – Pie chart listing the percentage allocation of the home server storage

· Drives – List, size and health of hard drives installed on the home server

· Backup – List of computers being backed up and their current backup status

· Shared Folders – List of Shared Folders by name with health status and duplication status

· Media Counters – Count of music, photos, videos and recorded TV files on the home server

· Health – Health of the entire home network

· Home Server – System information of the home server’s hardware and manufacturer info

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Windows Media Center view – Home Server – Console View


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About Terry Walsh

Terry Walsh is the founding editor and owner of We Got Served. Since February 2007, the site has provided detailed coverage and analysis of the emerging home server category, and has subsequently grown into a trusted outlet for digital home news and reviews.
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  • Kevin

    The press release has lead to some confusion regarding back ups because those with W7 already installed know that backups are already working fine with PP2. I think if you read the press release carefully, it simply says that W7 will now recognize that Home Server is doing the backup and Action Center will no longer warn you that you are not doing back ups.

    • steve

      agreed. It is a nice fix. I hated when windows 7 told me i need to config a back, even though it was being done.

      just a simple interop update needed for Win7.

  • Peter

    Maybe it is a little more. I actually had to do a restore of a Windows 7 PC using the restore CD.
    This all went perferctly fine except that the the restore did not create a correct boot record, resutling in a failed boot. This could have been a single incident case, but has anyone else tested this (without PP3?) I could fix the boot problem with the Win7 repair, but still.

    • bobtran

      I had to do a restore of Win7 using the restore CD (currently using PP2) and everything including the boot record went perfectly. I also used WHS to resize my partitions by taking space from partition 1 and adding it to partition 2. Process was (1) Reformat the drive
      (2) create new partitions 1 and 2 (3) restore Vista to Partition 1 with 76 gb less space and (4) restore Win7 to partition 2 with 76 gb more space which got me around the problem of attaching free space to the left of the partition I was adding it to. Everything worked perfectly and there has not been even a hicup in the system since.

  • Vassilis

    what i don't understand with the tv archive thing and compression is does it actually creates a second copy using the compression that we select or it just converts the recording and you have only one file ?
    The compression .wmv file does it show up on the "Recorded TV" as an actual recording ?

    • Kelly

      TV archive creates a compressed copy of the recorded TV show. The copy is a Windows Media Video (.WMV) file. TV archive copies the file to one of three locations: the “Videos” share on the Home Server, “Public Videos” folder on the Media Center PC, or a custom location specified by the user.

      TV archive can also move the original recorded TV show (.DVR-MS or .WTV) to the “Recorded TV” share on the Home Server.

      All of these options are exposed on the “settings” page in the TV archive tile in Media Center.

      • Vassilis

        nice Kelly, thanks got it now

        • Kelly

          No worries. Glad I could help.

      • Biju

        Don't expect this to work with the Copy Protected/CableCard recordings.

        • Kelly

          Correct. This will not transcode copy protected shows. That's a licensing issue though, not a technical one.

  • Nike

    How do you do a system restore from a WHS backup, I mean do you need another bootable disc in the client machine or how can it reach the networked backup image?

  • Nike

    Nevermind, just read the technet blog now and that explains it :)

  • Richard Zachary

    I got the PP3 installed and all is well except the Console view is not available in Media Center. Any suggestions?

    • Kelly

      Try looking in the Extras tile. The console view tile should be there.

  • Mal

    Not enough in my view, should provide better streaming to DNLA devices

  • Pingback: WHS Power Pack 3 Beta « Tech Diversions

  • martin

    TV Archive feature: Does the metadata trasfer to the new .wmv file? If so, does media center read his info from the 10-ft interface? If no metadata is copied, can you tailor the filenames by episode title-date or other descriptors? Anything like this in the works to support proper archiving?