Microsoft today announced the imminent release of Windows Home Server Power Pack 3, which brings a number of new features to the platform, most notably improved integration with Windows 7 and Windows Media Center.
We first revealed the new features planned for PP3 back in July, only for Microsoft to delay release of the update in September for additional testing. It’s now finally ready for prime time, and you’ll be able to get hold of the final bits, courtesy of Windows Update, next Tuesday.
Here’s the announcement in full:
Windows Home Server Power Pack 3 available November 24th includes enhancements for Windows 7-based computers
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 24th, 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 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
Whilst we’ve all been waiting for a while for Power Pack 3, it’s well worth the wait, especially for Windows Media Center users running a home server. My guess is, security updates aside, this may well be the last feature release for WHS v1 and if that’s the case, we can consider the Microsoft’s first home server platform well and truly complete.
Congratulations to the Windows Home Server team on the release of Power Pack 3!
19. November 2009 at 7:14 pm
A whole month too late… great work on that, MS. Windows 7 was released a month ago, and they just now catch up with supporting it on one of their current products? I think something's broken about that. Seriously, it should have been released before the Windows 7 launch, not a month after…
For a current product that a company is expected to maintain (if they plan to sell any, that is), it's hard to be thankful (to MS) for a critical update like this… but it's good to see none the less. Thanks to Terry @ WGS for the info, though
19. November 2009 at 10:27 pm
Phew! I thought I was for it as well then!
19. November 2009 at 8:05 pm
I am running PP3 Beta and it is nice to have recordings shared by all Win 7 PC's on my network. The Add in to WMC is also nice for a quick overview of server storage. If this is the final release for WHS v1 then I would also agree WHS v1 is a success… now if MS would just support more formats fully in WMC I would be tickled pink…
19. November 2009 at 8:11 pm
Oh wait a tick…
Tuner support would be the best thing since sliced bread and probably as close to softsled as we will see… It would be great if WHS v2 offered tuner support so that all WMC could view live tv from the WHS box, it would greatly clean up the cable mess my current W7 HTPC has and allow those of us with cable boxes to watch live tv only available above channel 125 in every room, yes the xbox 360 does this but I still prefer an HTPC…
19. November 2009 at 8:17 pm
Good news. So while their asia/pacific counterparts have wrapped up PP3, I hope the Microsoft WHS Team has been busy working on v2 for some time and have something to show/announce at CES.
19. November 2009 at 10:46 pm
@David, PP3 would be benefit if you access WHS from a netbook or would like to take advantage of Windows Search 4.0 capabilities. I imagine there are some bug fixes as well. If it were me, I would install it in any case.
25. November 2009 at 3:52 pm
I can't see any noticable improvement for netbooks with PP3. I have an Asus Eee 901 with 1024×600 resolution.
I still see annoying horizontal and vertical scrollbars in the lower frame in the WHS console. This feature was originally added in hotfix KB963032 in May09. The feature also takes up an additional terminal server instance to other WHS consoles at larger resolutions – this means tham I'm sometimes refused further RDP/console connections due to already having 2 sessions open.
This feature method hasn't been updated in PP3 as far as I can see…. or am I missing something here?
19. November 2009 at 11:57 pm
I wonder what this means for the timing of the overdue HP EX470/475 update.?
20. November 2009 at 7:05 am
I don't really understand som e of th ePP3 features.
I already have the home server shares in my W7 library and
there are no issues with the backup whatsoever.
Can someome explain ?
20. November 2009 at 11:32 am
I'm with you on this: My libraries were integrated for me by the media centre connector (annoyingly so), and it does show as windows 7 in the console (not on the remote access site tho). You can always disable the backup message in the action centre yourself. The only real updates I'm seeing here is WMC and restore.
20. November 2009 at 8:09 am
It's not clear from the announcement whether those of us who have installed the PP3 Beta need to uninstall it, or whether Windows Update will simply upgrade it into the final version…
Anyone know what the situation is?
21. November 2009 at 7:35 am
Geoff,
Yes, as with any beta software you will need to uninstall it first in order to install the final release.
Andrew
usingwindowshomeserver.com
21. November 2009 at 7:40 am
Andrew,
That's all very well, but I note that the announcement says that we need to have PP2 installed on the server first, before Windows Update will install PP3.
Where do I get PP2 from?
21. November 2009 at 7:58 am
Ah – I posted this question on the Windows Blog as well, and a Microsoft Employee has answered it:
"You’ll want to remove all prerelease software (PP3 Beta is prerelease). You can do that by clicking "show updates" in the Add/Remove Programs section and scrolling for the Power Pack 3 Beta. After removing PRERELEASE software, Windows Update will automatically pull in Power Packs 1-3 which will leave you will the released version of Power Pack 3".
20. November 2009 at 8:21 am
Does this mean that MS has finally solved the "Incorrect Password" bug in Media Center Connector s/w many of us experience? Why wasn't that ever announced? Or even acknowledged? I've been using PP3beta since it was released, but I've never been able to try the Win7 features touted because the MCC will not install. Somehow I feel there'll be a new round of complaints.
20. November 2009 at 9:52 am
Nothing amazing or really worth while for me i'm afraid
I have mapped my WHS shares to my Windows 7 computer and added them to my libraries already. Windows 7 shows up fine in the Computers and Back up tab already too.
As for WHS Version 2 and tuner support – if you can't wait / justify the cost when it arrives I would highly recommend the latest version of mediaportal as my WHS sends live DVB-T tv around my home network perfectly.
20. November 2009 at 10:21 am
yep, mediaportal on whs is great!
a console add-in would be great, too.
20. November 2009 at 11:10 am
Looking forward to it; thanks for the news.
I haven't been too concerned about the timing of the release, relative to Windows 7's release, though. I installed Win7 on one of my laptops, and it still backs up to my EX470, even identifying itself correctly as Windows 7 Professional. The other improvements are going to be terrific.
20. November 2009 at 8:09 am
Any idea whether the WHS Connector software will need to updated on each client PC?
21. November 2009 at 7:35 am
yes, it will – but it should update the connector automatically.
Andrew
usingwindowshomeserver.com
20. November 2009 at 3:22 pm
How do you remove PP3 beta…there is nothing posted anywhere.
21. November 2009 at 7:34 am
Tim – its detailed in the instructions that came with PP3. You have to double-click on the uninstall.cmd file and it will all be removed.
Andrew
UsingWindowsHomeServer.com
20. November 2009 at 4:47 pm
Anyone else experiencing a return to the dreaded "Updating Windows Live Custom Domains failed" message? Got it twice today…
22. November 2009 at 7:15 pm
Same here. Since I’ve started using LightsOut about e year ago, every time the server comes out of hibernation because a client wakes it up through LightsOut, I get this message. The fix Microsoft supposedly applied to the website did nothing for me. Will this be fixed in PP3?
24. November 2009 at 9:08 am
well it be Tuesday ? – so where is the update
24. November 2009 at 12:31 pm
echo
24. November 2009 at 1:17 pm
Hype! So where's the response from WGS? Here I logged in to see why no PP3 and there's a ghost town. (Except for the hype on some new router.)
24. November 2009 at 1:30 pm
10am Pacific is what I heard on the grapevine
24. November 2009 at 3:20 pm
whats that GMT ?
24. November 2009 at 4:26 pm
http://wwp.greenwichmeantime.com/time-zone/usa/us...
24. November 2009 at 7:16 pm
Yay downloading PP3 now comes with a server 2003 update. I'll edit if it works well with HP MSS
24. November 2009 at 6:49 pm
Anyone know if HP's WHS integrated iTunes server will still function after SP3 install?
26. November 2009 at 9:21 am
I am not sure where to look to fix this. My tv is not getting archived and is failing. When i look at the program in the extras, it has a failure count and the show never gets past 0%. I assume it may be a permission issue? anyone have any ideas?