Windows Home Server Power Pack 3 Pushed Back to Year End

By on September 29, 2009 in Windows Home Server

On the same day that they announced a move by HP to take Windows Home Server into the small business market, Microsoft also chose to announce that Power Pack 3, the next minor update of the platform, would be delayed until the end of the year.

Power Pack 3, which enhances compatibility with Windows 7, was originally slated to be released around the end of October. It’s unclear as to the reasons for the delay, other than Microsoft wish the current beta version of the release to be more comprehensively tested.

Clearly, there must good reasons why the update has been pushed back to the year end, but a five month beta cycle for a service pack does feel extensive. It’s such a shame that at a time when we’re seeing HP release multiple home servers, Lenovo coming on board with the D500, and Asus also rumoured to be planning a home server, there’s a well-publicised delay on the development of the OS.

Still, in the meantime, download the beta and go file some more bugs!


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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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  • http://intensedebate.com/people/cainmp cainmp

    very sad indeed, i have been using PP3 for a while now with no problems. There are a few things i wish where different/added, but there have been no major complaints from me.

  • Bob

    I'd rather a delayed PP3 which is more stable than an 'on time' PP3 that is buggy.

  • Kevin

    I'd rather hear some news on Vail, than hear about delayed PP3…

  • WHS-Newbie

    I also agree that this delay is not good for me or anyone. I will be upgrading the entire household PC's to Win7 and I have yet to put PP3 on my production WHS unit. With this delay, I won't be using the power of Win7 which will annoy me at best for the foreseeable future. Since I have paid for Win7 already via the summer’s promo. I hate to be annoyed in this manner. With all of the activity on new players in the WHS arena, I was hoping that we would be getting "BIG" news around the Oct 22 Win7 releases. Now I'm not so sure that the complete story was well thought out, for WHS users. Delays on PP3 and no word what-so-ever on VAIL have me a bit blue at this time. And to add to my dilemma, anyone that could give me some sign of hope is under a NDA contract. Maybe I’m just getting to old for all of this…. Nahhh!
    Sincerely disappointed.

    • Brad

      I think you mean "too old"….your comments and grammar make you sound like you're 12 years old, so definitely not too old. You're like a child who didn't get their first choice Birthday gift. Stop throwing toys out of the pram and deal with it.

      • http://intensedebate.com/people/urmaster urmaster

        Calm down brad. It's just a comment he isn't taking an English exam. Considering the initial release of WHS I’m surprised there is no news on Vail. PP3 aside WHS has needed a lot of augmentation to bring it up to standard (remember file corruption bug).

        I’m sure soon after PP3 release MS should have enough feedback to begin making a kick ass Home Server OS (not that this release is bad). With this they should consider an announcment.

    • raul

      I agree!!!
      what does this do for us HP ex470 owners waiting for HP software update that was promised after the WHS PP# release?

  • http://www.swrebellion.com Evaders99

    Boo that sucks. Wish they would give more information what needs to be tested

  • Michel

    I am using the beta right now and it work just fine.

    My suggestion to the one that are going win 7 just do the beta as it work very well.

    • Brad

      Yeah, use the beta…if you have no value for your data.

      • Michel

        Wow brad common this is a SP3 that have better made the VSS file replicator.

        Do you think I am stupid and by the way if he go Win 7 he need to install the SP3 period in that case because he will be without protection in that case.

        I have built my server myself and I am telling you that SP3 was witouht a quirk.

        And I have already have a full copy of my server itself offer since SP2, I guess you need guys like me to make the home server more forward so that you could enjoy the benefits after.

        Anyway you backup your PC no? well you should backup the server also and if you do the reinstall is a breeze very child play if you follow the prompt on the screen.

  • PaulJG

    I don't mind, really, as long as they take the time to get it right. Although I also purchased Win7 during the summer promo, I'm even willing to wait to install until PP3.

  • http://www.servethehome.com Patrick

    With the amount of data people store in their WHS systems, I'm more worried about a premature WHS release that causes issues than a delayed service pack. After the WHS release bugs, I think MS is wise to make sure everything remains stable before pushing it into production.

  • Fred

    The delay of pp3 is slightly annoying but being on the receiving end of a critical bug would make me livid. People need to grow up and not flame a company because they've decided to delay a product to increase the quality. Software development doesn't always go to plan like many other things like building construction etc. There are many companies (including Microsoft in other instances) where they release something very buggy just to meet deadlines (e.g. Xbox 360 with the RROD issue) and the consequences have been massive.

    The original WHS server had a serious bug with files being deleted when using multiple hard drives. I would not want to be the first to find out that a similar bug existed in PP3 because Microsoft rushed it out the door to meet their original deadline.

  • http://twitter.com/FalconFour @FalconFour

    Well, unless they want another miserable, broken Windows launch, they'd better push PP3 out the door before October 22, plain and simple. While those of us on the blog are happily using the polished-up, near-finished Beta version, the rest of the public likely has no idea about it.

    Then again, with WHS so old, buggy, and broken as it is, it's about time for a whole new release anyway. Hard to believe MS would continue to "support" a server OS that's 2 generations older than its client OS…

    • http://www.intensedebate.com/people/urmaster urmaster

      I agree that WHS launch was pretty bad (I didn’t buy it till the corruption bug was fixed). That being said windows server 2003 was also a proved OS until WHS broke it.

    • MSDNuser

      I've been using the RTM of Windows 7 since it came out, with the ability to do bare metal restores from WHS backups, by simply avoiding the 100MB hidden partition when I install, no PP3 required.

      Granted, auto-wake doesn't work (even manually enabling it doesn't result in backups), so I just backup during the day automatically and will reschedule for the middle of the night once PP3 finally does come out.

      So the workaround isn't that painful is my point

      See instructions on avoiding the 100MB partition (that throws WHS restores off) here:
      http://www.sevenforums.com/installation-setup/148…

  • Joney

    Oh..not again..Just a minor update on compatibility, and they had it tested for half a year already and still couldn’t finish it, donno you guys but I see quite an inefficiency here.

    I think it time to call off the original slow WHS develop team and form a new one which can and will bring on new systems on time with adequate quality.

  • Movedor

    This delay might be related to the new "homegroup" feature in Windows 7.
    I bet MS wants home server to show up there in the homegroup list because it makes it so much easier for casual user to actually use the server (instead just backups).