Microsoft News Tracker

The Windows Home Server Team Blog breaks the news that Windows Home Server Power Pack 1 has been released to manufacturing (RTM) and is now available on the Microsoft Download Center and coming in August to Windows Update. Here’s what’s new:

As many know, Power Pack 1 provides a range of new enhancements, including support for home computers running Windows Vista x64 editions, backup of home server Shared Folders, improvements to remote access, more efficient power consumption and better performance. And, of course, it delivers a fix for the data corruption bug. Documentation for Power Pack 1 (Build #1800, to those who have been part of the beta testing) is available here.

Our OEM partners will be updating their systems with Power Pack 1 and HP will release a software update for the HP MediaSmart Server, delivering enhanced media streaming capabilities from PacketVideo, server-side anti-virus from McAfee and compatibility with 64-bit home PCs.

The data corruption bug affected a few users using the the home server for file sharing and not for backup, but still it’s the kind of thing you really don’t want on your data protection and sharing machine.

Microsoft’s Brandon LeBlanc reports that Microsoft has released Windows Search 4.0 which replaces Windows Desktop Search in Windows XP and Instant Search in Windows Vista as well as the relevant applications in Windows Server 2003, 2008, and Windows Home Server. Downloads of Windows Search 4.0 are now available and if you can wait a bit, it will show up on Windows Update.

Some notable enhancements in the new version include cross system searches (as long as they all run Windows Search 4.0) and improved Group Policy management for large organizations, but I expect that the greatest initial interest will be in ordinary desktop search. XP’s Windows Desktop Search was a resource hog that produced such mediocre results that disabling it figured prominently on most lists of XP performance improvement tips and had me pining for my old copy of Lotus Magellan. Vista’s Instant Search is certainly improved in both form and function so it will be interesting to kick the tires. Early reviews of Windows Search 4.0 indicate that there are still some rough edges and while it beats Google Desktop search in function, it still lags in speed.

Microsoft revealed last week that Windows Home Server is corrupting shared files when accessed by a variety of Microsoft and third party programs:

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Where have we heard this one before? Microsoft may have released Windows Home Server to manufacturing in July but star OEM Hewlett-Packard has delayed release of its MediaSmart Home Server until Microsoft provides a promised fix pack:

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The Windows Home Server Blog announced RTM today:

Today we are announcing that Windows Home Server has been released to manufacturing (RTM). We have finalized the software and now handing it off to our OEM partners. The evaluation version (with 120 day evaluation period) and the system builder version are also heading into the distribution channels and will be available in the next couple of months. French, German and Spanish versions will be finalized shortly, and OEM products will hit retail shelves this fall.

We’re also excited to announce Iomega and Fujitsu-Siemens Computers (FSC) as new OEMs planning to ship Windows Home Server products later this year.

As I mentioned back in June when the release candidate came out, Windows Home Server has some very worthwhile features, but it will live or die with the OEMs who can easily price it into a tiny niche if they aren’t careful. Hopefully at least one will grasp the concept of appliance pricing.