Windows Home Server PP1 RC available to the public.

EnglishBloke — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 17:08:00 GMT

Microsoft have released a publically downloadable RC of PowerPack 1 for Windows Home Server.

You can grab it right now from the link at the end of this blog post.

Windows Power Pack one is stuffed full of cool features and enhancements heavily influenced by community requests and feedback.

PowerPack 1 also fixes the 'corruption bug' in Windows Home Server which affected a small set of Windows Home Server users saving to Windows Home Servers with multiple drive configurations.

This public release candidate follows the Windows Home Server teams die hard approach to taking customer feedback very seriously and the team looks forward to any and all feedback from the community regarding this release candidate.

Amongst the features included in the release are:

The ability to run Home Server Connector on x64 Vista.
Backup of the home server Shared Folders.
Remote Access improvements.
Improved Power Consumption.
Support for Chinese and Japanese Languages.

I personally have been running PP1 for a while now and I can honestly say I love it. I have had basically no issues at all. I've never experienced the corruption bug with PP1 and I run 12 drives on my WHS and save from many applications directly onto the shares. Performance has also never been better. I saw a nice CPU drop on my WHS with PP1 and haven't seen any errors in my event log for a long time :)

I think the WHS Team should be very proud of this release. It very much follows the quality of the original product. I think we've got some amazing things still to come from this team, and if the quality of PP1 is anything to go by, I think we're all going to be very happy.

Download WHS PowerPack 1 Release Candidate from Microsoft Connect

Read more details on the Windows Home Server Team Blog

Future Vision: Microsoft knowledge driven health

bcrounse — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 03:02:00 GMT

If your company ever comes to Redmond for a health industry briefing at our Executive Briefing Center, or you happen to attend one of the many keynotes I give at industry conferences throughout the year, you'll more than likely see what is known as our Health Future Vision video.

This is the third such health industry video we have produced here at Microsoft. It has been my pleasure to work closely with Ian Sands and his Industry Innovations Group (IIG) to bring these videos to life. What's particularly interesting is how accurate the videos have been in predicting future industry trends and how technology will influence the way we work. Perhaps that's because IIG does so much internal and external research before producing one of these videos. We also base them on technology that is either currently available but not widely implemented, or on technology that is being actively pursued in the labs at Microsoft Research. In any event, everything you see in the video is based on technology that is available now, or is very likely to be available within a 7 to 12 year time frame.

Our newest Future Vision Video also captures the essence of healthcare industry trends that I've been following and writing about for the last few years. This includes the rising tide of consumerism in healthcare, the retail movement, commoditization of services, information everywhere, and globalization.

In the video, we follow a young pre-diabetic patient as she ventures out on a run. During her run, various physiologic functions are being monitored and data is being sent in real time to her personal health record.

A case manager, who has been given permission by the patient to see her data, becomes aware that she may qualify for a new clinical trial. When the young woman returns home she enters into a virtual consultation with her case manager who directs her to check with her personal physician about possible enrollment in the study. She immediately schedules a "virtual conference" with her personal physician.

The scene switches to the young woman's endocrinologist as he beings to make rounds in a hospital. He uses a very light-weight Tablet computer to gather information on his patients, locate needed equipment, and conduct his patient visits.

We see him performing a retinal exam on one of his diabetic inpatients and sharing results with the patient.

He later enters a special room where he conducts a "virtual visit" with the young woman we saw at the beginning of the video. The physician, his patient, and a clinical researcher collaborate on details of the proposed clinical trial.

The doctor instructs his patient to visit a nearby retail setting, where as the video comes to a close, we see her using her "digital wallet" and a kiosk to get necessary tests and medication for the clinical trial.

I think the video accurately reflects the kind of consumer-directed, quality and price transparent, knowledge-driven healthcare delivery system we'd all like to see. And while this is just a video, it certainly captures the essence for how information technology will help transform medical practice to better connect people and data, facilitate improved collaboration, and better inform everyone involved.

Bill Crounse, MD Worldwide Health Director Microsoft Corporation

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Windows Home Server PP1 RC available to the public.

Future Vision: Microsoft knowledge driven health