Digital Home Thoughts: Windows Home Server Power Pack 3 Released

Windows Home Server Power Pack 3 was released yesterday, so if you own a Windows Home Server, log into the console and run a Windows Update to grab it. My initial experience with it was a bit bumpy - after the install, which I kicked off by using Windows Update on the server via the console, my Windows 7 systems were reporting that they needed to update the client software. Fair enough - except that the installation gave me errors and wouldn't complete. I also noticed that my Windows Home Server shared folders weren't accessible on the network. I did a remote desktop session, installed a Windows Update that I saw, then rebooted the Windows Home Server. After that, everything started working again. If it matters, I didn't beta test Power Pack 3 - it's a stock Power Pack 2 system.

One of the new features is shown above - you can see the status of your Windows Home Server storage inside Windows Media Center. How useful is this? Well, it's faster than logging into the console I suppose, though not by much. Of more interest is the libraries integration with Windows 7, assorted bug fixes related to Windows 7, improvements in search from Windows Search 4, and a TV archive system that will move your TV shows from the computer they were recorded on to the Windows Home Server - and it will transcode them to either a Zune-friendly or Windows Mobile-friendly format along the way. Cool! I have to say, it's great to see the Windows Home Server team continue to improve the product on a regular basis, and all for free.