The Windows Home Server team has announced today on their blog that a Release Candidate of Windows Home Server Power Pack 1 (Build 1771) is now available for public download and testing through
Microsoft Connect!
There has been a huge amount of testing applied to Power Pack 1 already and they have high confidence that Power Pack 1 solves the data corruption bug that was first identified late last year (
Knowledge Base article #946676).
They are running this public beta and hope to get thousands of beta testers to help them prove that they have fixed "the bug" and have significantly improved all parts of Windows Home Server with new features such as:
• Support for PCs running Windows Vista x64 editions
• Backup of home server Shared Folders
• Easier, enhanced remote access capabilities
• Better energy efficiency
• Improved performance
• Chinese and Japanese versions
They state they will not ship the final release of Windows Home Server Power Pack 1 until the community has validated their work. In the Release Documentation for Windows Home Server Power Pack 1 they outline a number of specific test scenarios.
So don't delay. Head on over to
Microsoft Connect and sign-up (if you haven't already) and download and start testing Windows Home Server Power Pack 1. They've posted both an update package that can be applied to existing Windows Home Servers as well as updated DVD and CD ISO images of an evaluation version of Windows Home Server with Power Pack 1.
If you choose to run the Release Candidate on a "production" home server you should make a backup of everything prior to getting started.
Make sure you read the Release Documentation which is included in the download to see what's new and updated.
The Windows Home Server team has added a
Power Pack 1 forum to the
Windows Home Server Community forums. If you have questions about Power Pack 1 they have suggested that you go there to ask them. If you want to share your experiences with others in our community we also have a
thread on the beta on Australian Media Center forums as well.
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