David Flynn25 March 2009, 12:08 AM
The souped-up server OS now streams content to Windows Media Centres and Extenders, streamlines Remote Access and squashes the ‘81% backup freeze’ gremlin.
If you’re one of the enthusiastic few who’ve set up a Windows Homer Server box, that box is about to pick up a few new features and slap down a few bothersome bugs in the process.
The reason? Windows Home Server Power Pack 2, which Microsoft released overnight. Previously codenamed Snoqualmie (after a peak in the Rocky Mountains) Power Pack 2 will be pushed to all live installations of Windows Home Server through Microsoft’s automatic update service.
Indeed, by the time you read this story your home server may already have downloaded and installed the free update – as long as you’re already running Power Pack 1, as Power Pack 2 won’t install over plain vanilla WHS.
With its mix of OS tweaks and tidy-ups plus new features, Power Pack 2 is perched midway between being a regular service pack and a new edition of the OS.
(Speaking of that new edition, which is codenamed ‘Vail’ after
another Rocky Mountain peak, Microsoft is still to decide if this 2.0 release of Windows Home Server will be
split into ‘basic’ and ‘premium’ editions).
The most welcome features enable users of a Windows Media Centre PC (under Windows Vista or the beta of Windows 7 – not XP, alas) and Media Centre Extender devices to play photos, music and video – including recorded TV shows – from your home server’s shared folder. PP2 also adds support for .MP4 MPEG audio and video files.
New configuration and repair wizards should help overcome headaches associated with gaining remote access to your home server via the Internet, while a Web-hosted diagnostic service can test whether remote connectivity will indeed be available from outside your home network.
In the bug fix department, Power Pack 2 should also swat the problem that would often see a home PC’s ‘restore from backup’ process freeze between the 79% and 81% mark.
Notification messages about files stored in shared folders, which were previously known to conflict with applications accessing those files and result in a spike in CPU usage, have also been tamed.