News

Beta Update of Windows Home Server Offered

Microsoft has begun enlisting the support of beta testers for Windows Home Server Power Pack 1.

• By Kurt Mackie
• 05/22/2008

This Power Pack will contain a fix for a previously noted data corruption problem, according to a blog by one of Microsoft's beta testers. That problem affected Windows Home Server systems using more than one hard drive.

Microsoft has already provided a patch for a different problem in which files were getting corrupted after being compressed using the NTFS file system on Windows Home Server.

Power Pack 1 will omit an anticipated feature in Windows Home Server -- namely, the ability of users to back up their backups. According to a post at the We Got Served blog, that feature was eliminated to avoid the possibility of users experiencing corrupted database backups.

Some Windows Home Server users apparently have had problems with remote access after they installed Windows XP Service Pack 3, according to a post at the Microsoft Windows Home Server Forums. The problem stems from a default setting in which "Terminal Services ActiveX control is disabled by default in XPSP3 as a security measure," according to a Forum reply. The reply provides a way to solve this problem.

Those who want to participate in the beta testing of Windows Home Server Power Pack 1 need to gain access through Microsoft Connect. The public download for Windows Home Server Power Pack 1, which will contain various fixes, is expected to become available in early June.

Windows Home Server is marketed toward families, providing a means to connect multiple home PCs and share multimedia files, as well as perform data backups. The product was first publicly unveiled by Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates in January 2007 at the International Consumer Electronics Show.