| Microsoft today officially announced the release date for Windows Home Server Power Pack 3. We have talked a lot over the last 6 months about PP3, so it’s to finally see it ready for release.
Here is the full press release from the Windows Home Server Team: 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 of MediaSmartServer.net 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 |
Windows Home Server Power Pack 3 Out November 24th
Asus TS Mini Windows Home Server
Asus are launching a new Windows Home Server called the Asus TS Mini.
TS Mini is powered by Intel Atom processor and based on Microsoft Windows Home Server Platform for simplified and familiar user interface to help users manage, protect and access their digital content. TS Mini features 2GB DDR2 memory, 10/100/1000Mbs Gigabit Ethernet, massive storage capacity with up to 4TB hard drive storage capacity, exclusive 500GB Web storage spaces, and 6 USB ports and 2 eSATA ports for future expansion.
Specifications
Processor / System Bus
Intel Atom Processor N280 1.66GHz
Memory
Total Slots: 1 (Single Channel)
Capacity: Maximum up to 2GB
Memory Type: DDR2 800
Memory Size: 1GB 2GB
HDD Bays
2 x 3.5 inch 7200RPM
Configuration Option: 500GB, 1TB, 2TB
Networking
LAN: 10/100/1000Mbps
On Board I/O
2 x External Serial Port
1 x RJ-45 ports (Gigabit)
6 x USB2.0 ports
OS Support
Windows® Home Server
(Subject to change without any notice)
Dimensions without Packing
245 mm (H) x 96 mm (W) x 204 mm (D)
Net Weight Kg (CPU, DRAM and HDD not included)
2.7 Kg
Power Supply
90W Single Power Supply (Aapter)
Accessories
1 x User’s Guide
1 x Bag of Screws
1 x AC Power Cable
1 x RJ45 LAN Cable
1 x AC Adapter (90W)
1 x Quick Start Guide
1 x Software Installation CD
1 x Recovery DVD
1 x Restore CD
1 x Warranty Card
LED Indicator
System, HDD1, HDD2, Network status indicators
Button
Power on/off, Recovery button
Color
Black
The two models, the 500GB and the 2TB are both available for pre-order on Amazon.com. The 500GB is $349.99 and the 2TB is $529.99.
Sky Player in Windows Media Center Now Live
A few weeks ago I reported about the Sky Player in Windows Media Center being announced at the Windows 7 press launch.
Well today, Sky Player is finally live and running.
If you launch Windows Media Center you will see it under TV.
If you click on it you will be prompted to install it.
It only takes a moment or two to download and install.
Then you can see everything 🙂
If you want to watch something you will need to sign in to your Sky account with your Sky ID.
If you don’t have one you can create one.
There is the “usual” Sky TV guide you can view (and it is quicker than the new Sky TV guide on your box!)
If you are an existing Sky customer with either a broadband account or Sky Multiroom subscription this service is free, otherwise you have to pay for it.
So far I am quite impressed with it – I will use it for a few more days and comment again – so watch this space – or Sky on your Media Center.
Tech Tip on a Tuesday Morning – SyncToy 2.1
Having a Windows Home Server is a great way to store your videos, pictures and files so how do you manage the files between your PCs and the server? How do you synchronize files between multiple drives? Microsoft provided an answer. SyncToy 2.1
Tech Tip
We all have a lot of data that we store and manage. I have 6 PCs at home, each with different functions, and it was difficult to manage the data files on each PC. Of course WHS kept them backed up but I was always dragging files to the server and then deleting old folders and trying to remember which folder had which version of each file. What a pain.
The solution? SyncToy by Microsoft. SyncToy has been around for a while but has not received any real attention. It is a real simple way to synchronize folders.
Download Link and Installation
Download and installation is easy. The link for SyncToy 2.1 is:
Using SyncToy
SyncToy is a very simple tool. Double click on the icon. Create a link to a pair of folders:
Choose the type of Sync you want to perform:
Name the Sync:
Run the Sync:
ALL DONE!
Mental note: Microsoft has a disclaimer on this tool.
This tool is not part of Windows:
Note: We’ve taken great care to ensure that this tool operates as it should, but it is not part of Windows and is not supported by Microsoft Technical Support. For this reason, Microsoft Technical Support is unable to answer questions about SyncToy. To speak to other users and contribute feedback about your experiences with SyncToy, please use the SyncToy forum at http://social.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/synctoy/threads.
Results
I am very impressed with this tool. It is quick, easy and a breeze to run. I use the SyncToy at home to make sure my iTunes folder on the WHS always has the latest music files I have bought and downloaded.
I use the tool to sync all of my work files to one of our central servers so my people can always get the latest versions of my database files.I click on All Folder Pairs and run as I am walking out the door and the server is updated while I drive home.
I added WHS folders as drive paths to make it easy to Sync.
See you next Tuesday,
Tim
Made for Media Center – The App Store for Windows Media Center
My friend, and fellow MVP Ian Dixon, he of the The Digital Lifestyle, has just launched a new site called Made for Media Center.
This new site is an app store for Windows Media Center and looks set to be the place to go to get your Media Center apps.
Ian says this about the site:
Here is a collection of the best apps for Windows Media Center in one location, once you have downloaded an application Made for Media Center will keep track of the latest updates.
You can filter by category or use the full text search. Best of all you can search and install apps from Windows Media Center via the Made for Media Center addin
The site is currently in beta, so go take a look and give Ian your feedback.
Click here to go to the site.
Great job Ian, I don’t know where you find the time 🙂
Windows Home Server Power Pack 3 Next Week Maybe?
Well we have all been patiently waiting for Windows Home Server Power Pack 3 these past months, with Microsoft originally wanting to release it on the 22nd October to coincide with the release of Windows 7, but then for whatever reason that didn’t happen.
Well, Sean Daniel who is the Program Manager for Small Business Server at Microsoft tweeted this:
Ahh… my #WHS is running Power Pack 3 RTM. Look for yours next week!
So, if we read this correctly, then Windows Home Server Power Pack 3 will be available some time next week.
No official word from Microsoft, but let’s hope Sean is right!
Tranquil PC Announce New Windows Home Server (Sort Of)
Got some interesting news from Tranquil PC this evening:
In January 2010, you will be able to get the latest D510 (CPU) equipped board (Tranquil will be shipping them from January 6th !)
Tranquil are currently testing the board, with some interesting results !
http://green-pcs.co.uk/2009/11/16/intel-main-board-pineview/
http://green-pcs.co.uk/2009/11/16/d510-the-cpu-introduction/
http://green-pcs.co.uk/2009/11/16/d510mo-mount-olive-mini-itx-main-board/
The new MiDASS Home Server will be powered by the D510 CPU and NM10 chipset !!
This combination looks set to be a winner already – I cant wait to see what it can do. Go have a read through the information found on those links above and I think you will agree it looks interesting!
I have no other information on the new MiDASS Windows Home Server, but I am sure more details will follow shortly, and as usual, we will have one of the first ones for review.
Reviewing CableCARD™ Recorded TV in Windows Media Center on a Friday night
This has been my first full week with my new CableCARD ATI Digital Cable Tuner and I will explain how the unit is working with Windows Media Center 7. In addition, I will attempt to briefly explain how Copy Protection works and my next step in addressing Switched Digital Video.
Background
Now that Windows 7 has the Digital Cable Advisor, anyone who passes the test can get a CableCARD and Digital Cable Tuner for their PC and start watching and recording HD TV. You of course need a cable provider that supports CableCARD but most of you have that anyway. This is not as complicated as I make it sound. I promise looking back 4 months from now that you will see we were heading in the right direction!
Last week I walked through the installation process of an ATI Digital Cable Tuner (DCT) in Windows Media Center 7. My cable company (Charter) installed the CableCARD and I was up and running. The article can be found at:
The set up and installation of the CableCARD is actually quite easy. The challenge of the system is in understanding what you get with a CableCARD and the DCT.
Equipment
- Windows Media Center 7 PC
- Windows Home Server with Power Pack 3
- DCT on a qualified WMC7 system
- Two Beers (Optional as always)
Recorded TV
I am still going to use screen shots in other articles but it seems only fitting that I start using videos for Windows Media Center articles. This short video shows how the Copy Protected feature was shown on CableCARD recorded TV shows through WMC. With the Windows Update for the ATI DCT the Copy Protected feature is removed from programming classified as Copy Freely.
Copy Freely versus Copy Protected (Once)
So what is going on with this Copy Protected issue? Well I figured it all out thanks to an engadgetHD article. Let me explain and summarize what is going on with the DCT and WMC. After I installed the ATI DCT last week, and got the system working, the shows that recorded were locked as Copy Protected. I was not sure why they were Copy Protected but assumed it was due to the CableCARD. Then, as of Thursday night, all of a sudden the shows that recorded were NOT Copy Protected? What the hell? I could not figure it out until writing this article. It was on Thursday afternoon that I installed some Windows Updates. One of the updates was an update for the ATI DCT. This update changed the DCT to release the Copy Protected lock on any show that is listed as Copy Freely.
I cannot explain it as well as engadgetHD so more information can be found at:
Once the ATI DCT update was installed, the Copy Freely shows recorded after the update were then able to be viewed by other WMC PCs on the network. WHS and the TV Archive process loads the recorded TV programs to the WHS. Very cool.
Switched Digital Video – SDV
Although I get all of the basic cable channels on the DCT, and all of the local HD channels, there are still some channels I am missing. On the ATI DCT I do not get channels like Discovery HD, HDNet and Universal HD among others. Charter recently changed to switched digital video (SDV) and I need an additional component called a tuning adapter to get these special channels.
What the hell am I talking about? Ok, here is SDV in basic terms. It used to be that cable companies transmitted all of the channels through your RF cable. You and all of your neighbors received ALL of the channels all the time. This process takes up a lot of bandwidth so some cable companies decided to start switching to SDV. With SDV only channels that people are watching need to be sent. The basic channels (usually 02-99) are “always on”, or sent, but the rest of the channels are only sent when requested. This is basically what SDV is. Your cable box, DVR or DCT needs to “send a request” for the SDV channels. This is where the tuner adapter comes in to play. These are layman terms so Wiki it if you need detailed information!
Tuning Adapter
Gilbert, my technician from Charter, said during his visit this Saturday that the Charter tuning adapter is only currently supported for TIVO systems. He said he talked with his supervisor and that Charter in my area only installs tuner adapters under those circumstances. He did however say he would help me and would talk to his supervisor this week to see what we can do. Microsoft says that WMC supports SDV with a USB connection so I should be good to go. Since I have to convince his supervisor I took screenshots of the CableCARD data screens in WMC and printed them for him. In addition, I gave him some shots of WMC version screens and channel data. He said he was looking forward to helping me with this installation. Thank you Gilbert!
Follow Up for Next Week
I will call Gilbert and Charter on Monday to set up a third appointment for next Friday. I am excited to be the first one in my area to set up this type of system. I hope in the coming months with the release of the Ceton equipment that I will be laying the ground work for some clear and defined processes. I would suggest to anyone reading this that you run the Digital Cable Advisor on your system ahead of time to verify your eligibility for future DCTs!
See you next Friday night,
Timothy Daleo
CloudBerry Backup for Windows Home Server – New Version
Recently we posted about the CloudBerry Backup Add-in for Windows Home Server, and CloudBerry have now released an update, version 1.3.1.
Just to remind everyone about the CloudBerry Backup add-in:
Features:
- Easy installation and configuration
- Seemlesly integrates with WHS control panel
- Default backup plan is designed to quickly start WHS data backup
- Scheduling capabilities
- Data encryption
- Data retention schedule
- Secure online storage
- Data versioning
- Differential backup
- The ability to restore to a particular date
- Backup verification
New in 1.3.1 release
- Alerting notifications
- GUI issues with high DPI fixed
- Purging options work correctly.
- C# API – an ability to get backup plan statistics programatically
- Issue with Overview panel is fixed
- Other issues
Coming soon
- Block level backup and restore – backup only modified portions of files
- Virtual Disk – expose Amazon S3 storage as a local disk on your computer
- Storage costs estimates using http://cloudsplit.com/
- Web interface access your backup storage everywhere
- FTP support
- Nirvanix Storage Delivery Network support
- Microsoft Azure Blob Storage support
- Sun Cloud Storage Service support
Benefits:
- Backup and Restore Wizards make this service user friendly
- Strong data encryption protects your data from unauthorized access
- Data compression reduces the size of your backups
- Scheduling capabilities automate the backup process
- Backups are available for recovery 24/7
- Intuitive interface provides easy file and folder selection capabilities
- No proprietary storage format. You can access your files using other Amazon S3 tools.
It is still only in beta, which you can sign up for by clicking here. Expect a full review when its released.
Another Good Reason to Install Windows Home Server Power Pack 3 Beta Now
I am currently working away on a new book about netbooks and Windows 7.
I got a new netbook today, the Toshiba NB200 and it comes pre-installed with Windows 7 Starter Edition, which as it would seem, will be the case for about 70% of netbooks.
I decided that I should backup the new netbook to my Windows Home Server before playing around on it, and imagine my surprise when I tried to install the Windows Home Server connector software only to receive the following message:
“You cannot install Windows Home Server Connector on a Windows Starter Edition”
Have no fear, I installed the Windows Home Server Power Pack 3 beta on my production Windows Home Server, and voila, it installs and works perfectly.
So, if you have a desperate need today to backup a Windows 7 Starter Edition netbook or PC, get the Power Pack 3 beta and run it!
Power Pack 3 should be out soon – so watch this space for more news.
For more information on PP3 now, click here and here and here.
First Look at Diskeeper 2010 for Windows Home Server
A few days ago we got an advanced copy of the new version of Diskeeper for Windows Home Server – Diskeeper 2010.
There is no specific information on a release date or price, so watch this space – we will of course be doing a full review soon.
The biggest change to this version is the inclusion of something known as IntelliWrite (see after the screenshots).
More info soon…….
IntelliWrite™ Fragmentation Prevention
IntelliWrite is the ground breaking technology that prevents the majority of fragmentation from ever occurring, dramatically improving Windows system performance.
A small percentage of fragmentation is not preventable and will be eliminated by Automatic Defragmentation. The combination of IntelliWrite and Automatic Defragmentation will keep your system running at optimum performance in the most effective and efficient way possible.
Prevention of fragmentation with IntelliWrite has been found to be more efficient than other defragmentation methods. IntelliWrite reduces the need for disk head movement and results in a reduction of system resource usage and power consumption.
Note: IntelliWrite requires more than 2 GB of free space to run.
Mini Review of the Samsung SE-S084 External DVD drive
I purchased this DVD drive for use with both a Netbook and the Windows Home Server.
One reason I have it for the WHS is to copy data directly to the WHS from disc, instead of over the network. With a baby in the house, we take a LOT of photos and videos. Costco does excellent, high resolution photo discs from film, and with my camcorder 20 minutes fills a 1.4GB disc.
Pros: Small, lightweight
Worked on my Netbook with Windows XP, my desktop with Vista Home 64-bit, and the WHS, without having me to download or install any drivers or software. Windows found it and installed the driver for me. Seems like it is cheap and not durable, but it seems to be holding up fine. I take it with me on all business and personal trips, and it still works.
Cons:
Apparently not bootable. I personally haven’t tried this, since that’s not my intent, nor most likely not your intent either. I highly suggest if you need to boot from disc to use a USB drive instead.
Speed:
Acceptable. It’s a portable drive, and that’s what it is best at. It’s not a speed demon. Compared to my internal DVD drive, it’s a bit slow. From the specs, we can see that it is not intended to be fast. Most likely it would require much more power to spin the disc faster.
Comments:
It uses one of those USB splitters for power. It runs entirely off of the computer’s USB power. This is either a pro or a con, depending on your view. It’s not actually an acceptable use as defined by the USB standard, though. Some computers USB ports provide enough power for it with only the primary connection. I’ve found this to be unreliable, so I use both USB plugs.
Conclusion:
If you are looking for an inexpensive little external USB-powered DVD drive, then this should work for you.
http://www.samsung.com/us/business/semiconductor/products/odd/oddMobile.html
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HP MediaSmart EX495 Windows Home Server Deal on Newegg
Newegg.com are offering $100 off the price of the new HP MediaSmart EX495 Windows Home Server, and throwing in free shipping as well.
Click here to order your EX495 and don’t forget to use the Promo Code EMCMMMP48 shown above – but hurry, this offer will be very limited!
The Home Server Show Podcast 64 Out Now
Dave over at the Home Server Show Podcast has just released show 64.
Dave says about this weeks show:
Today the guys join me to discuss a home build using a 20 bay Norco case and my latest post where I found a virus while using a popular meta tool. Have I changed my feelings about loading Anti-Virus/Spyware protection on my Windows Home Server? Listen in. We also go over a lot of comments, tweets, and forum posts.
NewEgg.com Kill A Watt – $19.99
Upgrading the RAM in your MediaSmart EX470 and EX475
Norco 20 bay case at Newegg.com
As usual you can listen to it here.