14 DAY TRIAL // The third major update for Microsoft’s home server is now just days away. Windows Home Server Power Pack 3 (PP3) will be made available on November 24, 2009, and users will be able to grab it through Windows Update. From the get go, the Redmond company will make available Windows Home Server PP3 in the following languages Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, and Spanish, and users will need to already be running the second Power Pack for the home server in order to be able to integrate the latest release. Windows Home Server PP2 customers need only turn on Automatic Updates in order to have PP3 automatically delivered and installed on their machines.
“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,” noted Microsoft’s Mark Pendergrast.
When it comes down to Windows Home Server, this Microsoft OS is a tad special, in the sense that major upgrades are not served through Service Packs but rather to Power Packs, although the two concepts are roughly equivalent, as far as Microsoft is concerned. Windows Home Server Power Pack 3 seems ahead of anything else, a release designed to make the home server platform play nice with the latest iteration of the Windows client from Microsoft.
Following the deployment of PP3, all Windows Home Sever shared libraries will become accessible via Windows 7’s libraries. PP3 will also allow computers running Windows 7 to be configured to wake up at already established backup intervals and to subsequently go back to sleep once the process is finalized. In addition, the Windows 7 moniker will not be correctly featured in the Computers & Backup tab.
“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,” Pendergrast added. "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. 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. You can view information about your home server’s storage space, hard drives, backup status, and more from Windows Media Center.”