Windows Experience Blog : Windows Home Server

Windows Home Server Power Pack 3 Announced, Adds Enhancements for Windows 7 PCs

Brandon LeBlanc — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 08:12:40 GMT

The Windows Home Server Team has announced today the beta of Windows Home Server Power Pack 3 (PP3). And if you’re running Windows 7, Windows Home Server PP3 comes with several new features designed to take advantage key Windows 7 features:

Full Image-based Backups of Windows 7 PCs. After the Windows Home Server Connector is installed on your Windows 7 PCs, Action Center should no longer display that your files are not being backed up.
Windows 7 Libraries Support. Music, Photos and Videos shared folders from your Windows Home Server will be added to Windows 7 Libraries. Content saved to these shared folders will be able to be quickly accessed through your Windows 7 Libraries. And any application, like Windows Media Player and Windows Media Center, will be able to access content saved on your Windows Home Server through Libraries as well.
Windows Search 4 is now included. With Windows Search 4, PP3 offers improved query search times, indexing times and reliability. Easy search through a Library in Windows 7 with files stored in multiple locations.
Windows Media Center Enhancements. Archive old recorded TV shows onto your Windows Home Server in a variety of formats. Use Console Quick View to see statistics about your Windows Home Server through Windows Media Center.

More in-depth information on these features – see their blog post on PP3.

The Windows Home Server Team does not yet have a final release date for PP3 however they are shooting to have PP3 available shortly before GA of Windows 7. If you’re running Windows Home Server and have several Windows 7 PCs – I encourage you to give PP3 a try and help the Windows Home Server Team make PP3 rock.

To beta test PP3, please sign up as a beta participant of the Windows Home Server program on Microsoft Connect. Once you’ve signed up, you’ll be able to download PP3.

Windows Home Server Power Pack 3 will be a free update to existing Windows Home Server users via Windows Update.

I’ll be installing PP3 on my HP MediaSmart Server EX470 either tonight or sometime over the weekend. I’m stoked about the Windows 7 integration!

Windows Home Server Power Pack 2 Announced

Brandon LeBlanc — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 08:06:04 GMT

The Windows Home Server Team announced today Power Pack 2. The English version of Power Pack 2 will be made available via Windows Update starting March 24th to Windows Home Servers with Power Pack 1 installed. You must have Power Pack 1 installed in order to install Power Pack 2. Chinese, French, German, Japanese and Spanish versions of Power Pack 2 will be made toward the end of April.

Power Pack 2 offers Windows Home Server users the following awesomeness:

Improvements to Remote Access
Enhanced Functionality for PCs running Windows Media Center (via Windows Media Center Connector)
Content Streaming Support for Windows Media Center Extenders

For me, I am particularly interested in the Windows Media Center Connector. With the Windows Media Center Connector installed, Windows Media Center will have access to content stored in shared folders on a Windows Home Server. Just this last weekend, I went through about 1,500 CDs and DVDs I’ve accumulated over the years of sporadic backups of photos and documents. I had CDs going back to 2000. I went through each CD and DVD and pulled off all the important data (mostly photos) and transferred the data onto my Windows Home Server. I now have no data remaining on any physical media anywhere. Everything is now on my Windows Home Server (which I affectionately call JARVIS). And now with Power Pack 2, I’ll be able to browse through those old photos I rediscovered from years ago directly within Windows Media Center downstairs in my living room.

For more information on Power Pack 2, read this post from the Windows Home Server Team.

Psst, here is a little tip for Windows 7 Beta users who have Windows Home Servers. You can add Windows Home Server shared folders to Windows 7 Libraries. Just right-click on a Library and choose “Properties”. There you can pick which folders you want in that Library. Choose “Include a folder…” and type \\ServerName\ShareName\FolderName etc. See below screenshot for a example:

You can see that in my Documents Library, I was able to add my “Brandon LeBlanc” user folder (located at \\JARVIS\Users\Brandon LeBlanc). I have actually created a standalone Library on my Windows 7 Beta PCs called JARVIS consisting of all the important shared folders on my Windows Home Server.

Try Out and Help Test Windows Home Server Power Pack 1

Brandon LeBlanc — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 22:13:00 GMT

Today, the Windows Home Server Team has announced the availability of the Windows Home Server Power Pack 1 Release Candidate for download on Microsoft Connect. You can read Charlie Kindel's post announcing today's release on the Windows Home Server Team Blog.

Microsoft Connect: Windows Home Server

Power Pack 1 for Windows Home Server contains numerous bug fixes - including the data corruption issue - as well as many new enhancements to Windows Home Server many users will enjoy:

Support for PCs running Windows Vista x64 editions
Backup of Windows Home Server Shared Folders
Easier, enhanced remote access capabilities
Better energy efficiency
Improved performance
Chinese and Japanese versions

I'm currently running the Power Pack 1 Release Candidate on my HP MediaSmart Server and enjoying new functionality Power Pack 1 adds to my Windows Home Server. I recently added several harddrives putting my storage at 1.1TB. Having more storage allows me to utilize Folder Duplication for my Shared Folders. I also have 1 drive setup specifically for backups of my Shared Folders. I utilize my Shared Folders for quite a bit of data storage so I really appreciate having this functionality to ensure the data is safe (on top of Folder Duplication). Having more storage also lets me store my CompletePC Backups from my Windows Vista PCs on my Windows Home Server as well - but I will talk more about this in a later blog post. I am also enjoying the ability to backup my PCs to my Windows Home Server running Windows Vista Ultimate x64 with the Windows Home Server Connector that now runs on 64-bit versions of Windows Vista. On top of data storage and backups, I utilize my Windows Home Server for remote access when traveling as well.

Your testing of the Windows Home Server Power Pack 1 Release Candidate is very important to the Windows Home Server Team. They will not ship the final release of Power Pack 1 until the community validates their work in Power Pack 1.

Remember - Power Pack 1 is a Release Candidate and is not the final version - essentially it's a beta. If you choose to run the Release Candidate on your main Windows Home Server (aka your "production" Windows Home Server) you should make a backup of everything prior to installing the Power Pack 1 Release Candidate.

To leave feedback for the Windows Home Server Team - you can head on over to the public Windows Home Server Forums. Make sure you file any bugs you find with Power Pack 1 on Microsoft Connect.

Deployed: Windows Vista SP1 RC on ALL of my PC’s

Brandon LeBlanc — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 20:22:00 GMT

Today Nick announced the availability of the release candidate for Windows Vista SP1. I had a chance to get the RC build of Windows Vista SP1 installed a few days ago. I decided to roll the RC out on all of my PCs which showcase a variety of device types and scenarios:

My Main Desktop PC running Windows Vista Ultimate x64 - check.
My Test/Work PC running Windows Vista Business - check.
My Dell Vostro 1500 Laptop running Windows Vista Ultimate - check.
My Samsung Q1 UMPC running Windows Vista Home Premium - check.
My Digital CableCard PC running Windows Vista Home Premium - check.

In installing the RC on my PCs, I did a combination of using the standalone installer and Windows Update. Before proceeding to install the SP1 RC bits, I first needed to uninstall the SP1 beta bits first. Users looking to install the Windows Vista SP1 RC will need to uninstall any previous version of SP1 prior to the installation of the RC from either Windows Update or the standalone installer. With Windows Update, once SP1 was downloaded, a new series of screens telling me about SP1 appeared. The same series of dialog screens seen in the standalone installer is now launched when installing Windows Vista SP1 via Windows Update. This will be really helpful to the user in installing Windows Vista SP1. Previously with the beta, there was no guidance from Windows Update in installing Windows Vista SP1 like there was with the standalone installer. The ability to catch issues like insufficient disk space or PC not on battery power has been implemented earlier in the installation process - with a simple more useful error message to the user. In installing Windows Vista SP1 over Windows Update, a series of pre-requisites must first be installed before SP1. For the RC, these pre-requisites presented themselves to me in proceeding to install SP1 from Windows Update. However, before the final version of Windows Vista SP1 is released, it is likely these pre-requisites will be installed prior to SP1's release. If you have Windows Update configured for Automatic Update - it is likely these pre-requisites will be installed automatically at night.

When logging in to my PCs for the first time after installing the Windows Vista SP1 RC, the first thing I took notice of was that none of my PCs displayed a "find device driver" pop-up like I had experienced with the beta. Previously, I had a "find display driver" pop-up for my graphics driver for the PCs I had installed the SP1 beta on. In the RC - this seems to have been fixed. Many of the improvements I took note of back in September still held up, if not better, with the RC. All of my applications continue to work including:

Sony Vegas 7
New Zune software
Visual Basic 2008 Expression
Windows Live suite of applications
Windows Live OneCare
Smart FTP
ImgBurn
Yahoo! Messenger 9 Beta
Virtual PC 2007
Paint.NET

These are just a few of the applications I use and have tested with the Windows Vista SP1 RC. I'd also like to note that Games for Windows - LIVE games such as Shadowrun and Halo 2 for Windows Vista also continue to work as expected.

A few days ago I had blogged about my new HP MediaSmart Server and deploying Windows Home Server in my home. Those unfamiliar with Windows Home Server can learn about it here. Windows Home Server is essentially the server for the home based off Windows Server 2003 SP2 code. With my PCs running the Windows Vista SP1 RC, I've seen some noticeable changes in how fast it takes for PC backups to complete. Windows Home Server uses a connector to configure backups to the server which take place over the network. With the networking fixes in Windows Vista SP1, transferring files over my network has improved tremendously. Accessing file shares on my Windows Home Server is also much more responsive.

Because of these experiences with improved network performance, I decided it was time to migrate my network to a gigabit LAN. To do so, I picked up a D-Link DIR-655 Xtreme N Gigabit Router as well as D-Link DGS-2205 gigabit switch.

Transferring recorded TV shows to my Windows Home Server is a breeze! I continue to be impressed with my network speed and responsiveness running Windows Vista SP1.

I'd also like to call out experiences on my laptop and UMPC with some SP1 improvements. Most notably is the improvement seen with my laptop and UMPC in resuming from sleep mode. Resuming from sleep is much faster. In coming out of sleep, I can now immediately use my mobile PCs rather than having to wait through a lag until the system is usable.

I've spent a total of 3 days now running a complete Windows Vista SP1 environment and am very impressed with the improvements and fixes that the RC provides over the last beta.

Rolling out Windows Home Server with a HP MediaSmart Server

Brandon LeBlanc — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 12:03:00 GMT

This weekend I completed the roll-out of my new HP MediaSmart Server running Windows Home Server. I ordered the HP MediaSmart Server EX470. I originally had Windows Home Server running on my Dell Dimension E520 but decommissioned it when I created my "Ultimate" PC. I really wanted to try out the experience the average consumer will have in purchasing a Windows Home Server and setting it up in their home. The HP MediaSmart Server seemed like the perfect choice in checking out the Windows Home Server experience.

The HP MediaSmart Server EX470 has the following specs:

Processor - AMD 1.8GHz 64-bit Sempron
Memory - 512MB DDR
Interfaces - 4 USB 2.0 Ports, 1 eSATA Port
Storage - 1 500GB SATA 7200 RPM

The EX470 model of the HP MediaSmart Server comes with a single 500GB harddrive, however the EX475 model comes with 1TB (two 500GB SATA harddrives). I don't need 1TB just yet so decided to go with the EX470. The EX470 comes with 3 expansion slots to add my own harddrives at a later date which is really nice.

Windows Home Server gives a great deal of added benefit to Windows Vista users. First and foremost, it allows you to make sure your PC is completely backed up and that all your PCs on your home network are backed up. With a Windows Home Server restore disc, you can easily restore a complete PC backup from your Windows Home Server via your home network. Windows Home Server also makes sure all your PCs are protected by as well - alerting you if a PC becomes unprotected our has out-of-date antivirus/spyware definitions. And Windows Home Server takes advantage of Media Sharing abilities built in to Windows Vista for photos, music and videos. I can move recorded TV shows onto my Windows Home Server where I can access them on any PC on my home network. Same goes for my photos.

There are 3 reasons why Windows Home Server is essential for my home network:

A centralized place for data storage with quick access from any PC on my.
Quick and easy remote access to PCs and data.
Complete PC backups with full and quick restore capability.

I do a lot of traveling and when I'm away from my home office, I cannot begin to explain how amazing it is to be able to login to my Windows Home Server to access important data - or files I accidentally left behind. I can even use Remote Desktop to login to my PCs at home remotely.

In setting up the HP MediaSmart Server, I was curious how the experience would be in setting up a "headless" server from a consumer standpoint. There's no monitor connection on the HP MediaSmart Server - only way to access it is remotely. I was incredibly impressed on how easy it was.

Essentially, the HP MediaSmart Server comes with an install disc you use on any of your client PCs on your home network. The install disc will install some HP software for the server as well as launch a wizard that takes the user through a step-by-step process in setting up Windows Home Server. The wizard lets you setup a Windows Home Server Password, check for updates, name your Windows Home Server, and install the Windows Home Server Connector.

After the wizard completed, I had a fully functional and accessible Windows Home Server. Took me only a matter of a few minutes to set up. Very nice.

Coming up, I've got some more experiences to share with Windows Home Server and Windows Vista.

Demo: Windows Live OneCare 2.0

Brandon LeBlanc — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 09:51:00 GMT

Last week Nick announced that the Windows Live OneCare 2.0 Beta Program has begun. Windows Live OneCare 2.0 is the next major release of Microsoft's all-in-one PC protection program. Windows Live OneCare not only protects users from viruses and spyware, but also helps users make sure their important data is backed up and that their PC's are updated with the latest updates from Windows Update.

Chris Overd over at LiveSide briefly touches upon features within Windows Live OneCare 2.0 such as Multi-PC support with your OneCare Circle, Centralized Backup, and the upcoming online photo backup service. However I took some time to record a little demo video showcasing some of Windows Live OneCare 2.0's new features including the new PC startup management tool and the OneCare Circle.

Video: Windows Live OneCare 2.0 Demo

You will notice that in the demo, I didn't touch upon Windows Live OneCare 2.0's new Centralized Backup feature. That is because my PC's on my home network have all their backups managed by Windows Home Server, which was released to manufacturing earlier this week. Windows Live OneCare 2.0 takes into account PC's being backed up to a Windows Home Server. But more on Windows Home Server at a later date.

So just how does Windows Live OneCare 2.0 work with Windows Vista specifically? Windows Live OneCare 2.0 takes advantage of Windows Vista's Network Locations (Private VS Public) and protection levels with its firewall settings. Windows Live OneCare 2.0 ensures protection for your PC depending on your Network Location. Windows Live OneCare 2.0 uses Windows Vista's networking features to help protect the user's PC.

This is just the beginning of the beta program for Windows Live OneCare 2.0 Beta Program. Expect Windows Live OneCare 2.0 to evolve throughout the beta.

Expect this demo video to be the first of many demo videos to come on a variety of topics!

Subscribe and Share Calendars with Outlook 2007 and Windows Vista

Brandon LeBlanc — Tue, 29 May 2007 01:39:00 GMT

Outlook 2007 has a very little known feature where you can publish your calendar to the web using Microsoft Office Online. Microsoft Office Online has a Calendar Sharing Service that gives you 2MB of space online to share calendars with friends, families, and co-workers through the web. To view this service on Microsoft Office Online, all you need to do is sign-in using your Windows Live ID.

To share and publish your calendar in Outlook 2007 is very easy. All you need to do is right-click on your calendar and go to Publish to Internet and Publish to Office Online. You will be instructed to sign-in using your Windows Live ID before being able to proceed in publishing you calendar to the web. You can restrict access for your calendars so they are private and only sharable via email or you can make them public for anyone to access. Once your calendar is published, Outlook 2007 will write up an email for you which will include a link to your online calendar that can be sent to anyone you want to subscribe to the calendar.

Today, I've published a public Windows Experience Blog calendar for all to view and subscribe to. You can access the calendar online through Microsoft Office Online by clicking here.

Windows Vista actually ships with a brand new Windows app called Windows Calendar that includes the ability to subscribe (and publish) calendars. Using Windows Calendar in Windows Vista, you can subscribe to my published calendar on Microsoft Office Online! In Windows Calendar, just click the Subscribe button in the toolbar and a screen will appear asking for the URL of the shared calendar. Just put the following URL into the textbox:

http://calendars.office.microsoft.com/pubcalstorage/d1z4b4lz92334/
Windows_Experience_Calendar_Calendar.ics

Click subscribe and options will appear for you to tweak like how often you want Windows Calendar to check for updates and also what you want to call the calendar (sometimes what I call a calendar isn't what you want to call it).

By doing this, you are now subscribed to my publicly shared Windows Experience Blog Calendar. Any updates to the calendar I make in Outlook 2007 from my end would be reflected and updated on your end. That is because I have it configured to publish updates automatically. No, this isn't just a test calendar; I intend to keep it updated with events and any other important dates that come to mind! So get subscribed!

Windows Calendar supports the ability to publish calendars too except it isn't tied to any specific web service like Outlook 2007 is. You have the option of publishing to a WebDAV-capable server. You can also publish calendars to network shares and to your harddrive. I've actually published calendars to my Windows Home Server for home network access only between PC's (which worked great!).

There is a way to get around having to publish to a WebDAV-capable server. You can publish your calendar to a location on your harddrive and then FTP the .ics file to the web. Just remember the URL of where you uploaded the .ics file. From there, you can subscribe to the calendar and also send the URL to your friends. I used to do this as well. This solution is for more advanced users and lacks automation unfortunately.

In my opinion, this is a great example of Windows Vista and Microsoft Office 2007 working together AND a great way to stay on top of your latest happenings on your calendars.

WinHEC 2007: Day 2

Brandon LeBlanc — Sun, 20 May 2007 09:03:00 GMT

On my second day at WinHEC I really wanted to make it a point to stop by the Expo Hall and take a closer look at all the really cool hardware. So I spent about two hours walking around the Expo Hall and talking with folks until the Expo Hall closed. Microsoft's Pavilion had numerous kiosks set up with product experts at those kiosks to answer any questions.

At the Microsoft Pavilion, I caught up with one of Nick's colleagues Matt Krueger who was helping show off some Mobile PC's that take advantage of Windows Vista and it's technologies.

After talking with Matt, I spotted the HD Media Bridge kiosk and Network Attached Storage kiosk right next to it. I got a closer look at the D-Link Xtreme N Duo MediaBridge units. Right next to the Media Bridge units was the Maxtor (now under Seagate) network storage device that are use Windows Rally. You can check out Maxtor's selection of network storage devices here.

During the Windows Rally keynote demo by Program Managers Glenn Ward and Jim Barber, they showed off a Windows Sidebar Gadget that worked with the Maxtor network storage devices using Windows Rally technologies. I was able to take some shots of the Gadget running on one of the kiosk demo PC's. I would like to see more hardware devices come with Windows Sidebar Gadgets that work like this Gadget does with the Maxtor network device. To be able check the status of a networked storage device and see how much storage space I have through a Sidebar Gadget is simply amazing.

Next I stopped by to take a look at a couple of SideShow devices including a Ricavision SideShow-enabled Windows Media Center Remote. This is one real slick remote. I was also able to check out a Digital Picture Frame too.

The Windows Vista Logo program had a huge presence this year at WinHEC. They had a very nice Certified for Windows Vista device showcase of some of the neat new devices out in the marketplace today that are certified. Ironically, I was using my Nikon D40 to take these photos which is also a Certified for Windows Vista camera.

Ben Reed was there talking with folks about certified devices. Ben has been blogging Certified for Windows Vista here on the Windows Vista Team blog for a few months now and has been producing some really neat videos on certified devices.

I also stopped by and chatted with the folks from AMD, HP, Intel, and a few others before the Expo Hall had closed. I had a great experience!

WinHEC 2007 ended for me that evening on a high note when we all went to Universal Studios Hollywood (thanks to the Windows Server Team) to celebrate the coming of Windows Server 2008.

Click here to see my entire WinHEC 2007 Photo Gallery.

WinHEC 2007: Day 1

Brandon LeBlanc — Wed, 16 May 2007 08:16:00 GMT

Today I saw some really cool stuff at WinHEC 2007. WinHEC truly "advances the platform" this year with the platform being Windows Vista and Windows Server. A lot of the announcements that have been made today are about hardware pushing the experience in Windows Vista and Windows Server to the next level. And that is why this year's WinHEC is really exciting.

During this morning's keynote - there are a few key announcements worth highlighting. Software and Hardware Partners have been announced for Windows Home Server. Outside the HP MediaSmart Server coming out later this year, companies like Gateway and LaCie have announced plans for Windows Home Server powered devices. This is really cool as these devices will give you the best Windows Home Server experiences. The final name for Windows Server "Longhorn" has been announced today as Windows Server 2008 which Nick has covered here. And Windows home computing gets even better with Windows Rally. I am talking about this one in a later post as this announcement really excites me and deserves a separate post ;-)

It is always great to see Bill Gates speak. I was particularly fond of his overview of mobile devices that are coming down the pipe-line. I have found the UMPC to be really interesting especially with the Origami Experience running with Windows Vista. I'm trying to get my hands on one of the new Samsung Q1 Ultra to play with.

Coming to WinHEC isn't just about watching keynotes or attending sessions. It is also about interacting with your peers in the community. You get to discuss with them the announcements from the keynote as well as the hardware innovation coming out of the show. It provides a huge amount of value, in my opinion, to attending shows like this. I was fortunate enough to have some really interesting discussions with several of Microsoft's Featured Community members:

Steve Sinchak - TweakVista.com
Larry Richman - PROnetworks
John Obeto - SmallBizVista.com
Steven Bink - Bink.nu

I also had a chance to meet Rafael Rivera who you might know from Extended64.com.

Later in the evening, the Windows Server Division invited community influencers (such as the Featured Communities) and Press for a Baseball game at Dodger Stadium. It was a fantastic way to finish off the day and discuss today's announcements and sessions. Special thanks to the Windows Server folks for putting the event on for us.

Overall, it is really exciting to see all this new hardware innovation coming in to take advantage technologies in Windows Vista and Windows Server.

Tomorrow I plan to hit the Expo Hall and a few sessions during the afternoon.