The All about Microsoft blog reports that Windows Home Server Power Pack 3 delayed to after Windows 7 launch

"Microsoft’s Windows Home Server (WHS) team had been pushing to deliver the Power Pack 3 update around the time Windows 7 launches in October. But it’s not going to happen, officials acknowledged on September 28.

In a post to Microsoft’s official Windows Home Server Blog, the team didn’t offer many specifics as to why PP3 is late. The team said the PP3 update needs more testing to ensure quality."

>> Windows Home Server Power Pack 3 delayed to after Windows 7 launch

Windows Home Server is now available on MSDN

"A key benefit of Windows Home Server is the versatility and power it offers as a development platform. Even when Windows Home Server software was still in the beta stage, we published a software development kit (SDK) so that 3rd party developers could develop interesting add-ins for the product. See the original post, "Developers, Developers, Developers".

There are currently 100+ add-ins developed for Windows Home Server (up from 70+ in January of this year). We have a dedicated Windows Home Server Add-ins page on the Microsoft web site. There are also a number of other sites dedicated to this topic, such as the Forums on We Got Served and Windows Home Server Add-ins."

>> Windows Home Server - Now available on MSDN

Mary-Jo Foley posted a news story that Microsoft is ready to roll out the second minor update to its Windows Home Server release

"Power Pack 2, codenamed “Snoqualmie,” like its Power Pack 1 predecessor which Microsoft rolled out a year ago, is expected a combination of a service pack and a mini-feature pack. (Power Pack 2 is not the next big release of Windows Home Server; the next full WHS update isn’t expected until 2010.)"

>> Microsoft Windows Home Server Power Pack 2 on deck

Microsoft has released Windows Home Server Toolkit v1.1

"The Windows Home Server Toolkit is a collection of tools that help you troubleshoot issues with Windows Home Server."

>> Download for 32-Bit
>> Download for 64-Bit

The Windows Home Server team has released a minor software update for Windows Home Server

"This update improves the interaction between home computers running Windows Vista and a Windows Home Server-based system when copying files or folders that are larger in size than the free space available on the first (or primary) hard drive to a Shared Folder. Additionally, this update resolves certain issues which can happen when restoring files and folders from Windows Home Server, such as the opening of a Home Computer Backup sometimes stalling at 79% complete. The update also improves the search functionality when using remote access."

>> November 2008 Windows Update for Windows Home Server

Beginning this Saturday, November 1, the System Builder SKU for Windows Home Server will retail at $100-110 - down from the current price range of around $150-160," Microsoft announced on Friday.

>> Microsoft Cuts Windows Home Server Price

C.O.D. posted a guide about keeping track of your bandwidth usage with Windows Home Server

"Most of us have heard about Comcast's new bandwidth restrictions. Comcast has set a hard limit, finally, to their bandwidth usage for customers at a static 250GB per month. These are limits that were previously not in place and there is an easy way to keep an eye on your usage."

>> Keep Track of Your Bandwidth Usage with WHS

C.O.D. posted a guide about turning your Windows Home Server into a Free Proxy Server

"There are more uses for your WHS then you can shake a stick at; whatever that may mean. The latest endeavor is using your Windows Home Server as an Internet Proxy. I personally use my Windows Home Server as a proxy to be able to view sites that my company blocks access to. Setting up a proxy can also allow you to control web content served in your home. If you have a child, you can block sites or even keywords to keep pages from being served."

>> Turning your WHS into a Free Proxy Server

C.O.D. posted another Windows Home Server guide: Modify the Name of Your Hard Drive WHS

"People like to customize things. With that said, I ran across an individual that had an issue with his WHS. He imaged his existing hard drive to a larger hard drive, but was left with the original disk name in the Windows Home Server Console. This poses no problems, but is more of an annoyance than anything. If you want to change the name, you can."

>> Modify the Name of Your Hard Drive WHS

C.O.D. posted a guide about restoring Windows Firewall on Windows Home Server

"I recently ran into a situation where I was having some issues with
the Windows Firewall on my Windows Home Server, so I did what I though would help me solve my issues. If you open the options for the Windows Firewall on your Windows Home Server, there is an advanced tab with an option to "Restore Defaults." I figured this would restore the Firewall to the state it ships with Windows Home Server. Unfortunately, this isn't the case; it restores the Firewall to a BLANK state, losing all the necessary exceptions for WHS to function properly.

I also thought I could simply just recreate the necessary exceptions bringing WHS back to a restored firewall state. Unfortunately, this isn't the case either. I scoured the internet looking for the information on what exceptions to make and never really found a complete list. I searched everywhere: the technet site, Homeserver official forums, mswhs, wegotserved. everywhere."

>> Restoring Windows Firewall on WHS

C.O.D posted a guide about setting up FileZilla FTP Server on Windows Home Server

"Creating an FTP server on your Windows Home Server can prove to be very advantageous. There are many times when using the web interface just doesn't seem practical. Also, you are no longer limited to how many people have the ability to upload and download from your WHS.

Having an FTP server on WHS can also allow syncrinization of files between off site computers and WHS while giving greater flexibility. I am personally displeased with the lack of a download monitor for WHS while using the web page and therefore the setup of an FTP was necessary for me.

First, I chose FileZilla because of it is simple to setup, easy to maintain, and FREE. There is also more security in FileZilla than the included (but not installed) IIS FTP server. FileZilla supports FTP as well as FTPS using Explicit SSL/TLS. I am not going to explain setting up the latter, but the simpler FTP."

>> FileZilla FTP Server on WHS

C.O.D. posted a guide about setting up Windows Home Server as a Free Email Server

"Setting up your Windows Home Server as an Email Server is fast, easy, and best of all; it is totally FREE! The best part about is that you can use your Microsoft given WHS hostname as your email address (yourname@xxxx.homeserver.com). There are many commercial packages out there that can accomplish this task very well and some of them even offer a free version for those of us with little money. However, for easy installation and configuration, I recommend using hMailServer. hMailServer is very simple to use and offers many of the features that some expensive packages offer at no cost to you. There are even options for setting up webmail access."

>> Windows Home Server as a Free Email Server

Microsoft has released Windows Home Server Power Pack 1 public beta

"The Windows Home Server team, in conjunction with all of our partners, MVPs, and "Dogfooders" is extremely happy to announce 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 we have high confidence that Power Pack 1 solves the data corruption bug that was first identified late last year (Knowledge Base article #946676). We are running this public beta with the aspiration that we will get thousands of beta testers to help us prove that we not only have fixed "the bug", but have significantly improved all parts of Windows Home Server."

>> Windows Home Server Power Pack 1 public beta

DailyTech reports that Windows Home Server have still corruption issues

"Unfortunately, Windows Home Server is still experiencing teething problems. DailyTech previously reported that users' files were being corrupted by Windows Home Server when simply trying to access and save files. Microsoft responded to the data corruption by stating, "When you use certain programs to edit files on a home computer that uses Windows Home Server, the files may become corrupted when you save them to the home server.""

>> Windows Home Server Still Crippled By Corruption Issues

Microsoft is researching a fix for a bug in Windows Home Server that could corrupt some files saved with certain applications.

>> RWindows Home Server bug corrupts files

Microsoft published Windows Home Server Technical Brief for Home Networking

"This technical brief provides an in-depth look at home networking and how it applies to Windows Home Server."

>> Windows Home Server Technical Brief for Home Networking

InfoWorld reports that the first hardware boxes with Microsoft Windows Home Server will go on sale

Hewlett-Packard MediaSmart Server is set to be available for pre-order on Amazon.com, Bestbuy.com, Buy.com, Circuitcity.com, and CompUSA.com. Online retailers will ship the product to customers later in the month, when it also will be available on site at other retail outlets, Microsoft said. HP is selling the product in two versions -- a 500GB version for $599 and a 1TB version for $749.
>> HP's Windows Home Server box goes on sale

Hardware Zone posted a review on Windows Home Server

"Aimed at a niche audience with multiple computers at home, Microsoft's new Windows Home Server hopes to automate the mundane tasks involved in home networks, from file sharing to system backups. If you're the unofficial IT troubleshooter at home, this is a must read for it may just save you a lot of hassle."

>> Windows Home Server - Sysadmin Made Easy

Microsoft has released Windows Home Server Toolkit V1

"The Windows Home Server Toolkit is a collection of tools that help you troubleshoot issues with Windows Home Server."

>> Windows Home Server Toolkit V1

Microsoft has released Windows Home Server Release Documentation

"This document contains late-breaking information to help you set up and run Windows Home Server."

>> Windows Home Server Release Documentation