Got Windows 7 on your PCs and a Windows Home Server box sitting in the corner? Then you’ll want to grab the Power Pack 3 update as soon as it’s released next week.
Critics may consider it more as WTF than WHS, but Microsoft continues to plug away at its Windows-based home server platform.
Next Wednesday sees the third major update since Windows Home Server made its debut in 2007, with Power Pack 3 bringing the platform in line with Windows 7.
Windows 7 PCs can be set to wake from standby at a scheduled time for automated backup to the home server, and then go back to sleep after the backup is done.
PP3 also integrates a server’s shared folders into Windows 7 Libraries and inherits Windows Search 4.0 to speed search and indexing times, especially when scouring libraries on other PCs in the network.
TV shows recorded on a Windows Media Centre system can be moved onto a home server and transcoded for playback onto WMV-capable portable devices such as Windows Mobile phones, either 320 x 240 pixels (at 500Kbps) or the Zune-friendly 640 x 480 pixels (at a smoother 1500Kbps).
There’s even a concession to netbooks, with the server’s admin console tweaked so that it displays correctly on a netbook’s 1024 x 600 screen.
For more on Power Pack 3, click to the official
WHS team blog.