Windows Desktop Search 3.01 for XP

[Curt]

Windows Desktop Search 3.01 for Windows XP requires Microsoft Genuine validation. I like it, and think it is fast and much better than the old standard search engine. Only, the look of it is not too smart, yet: what an incredible waste of space!

[attachimg=#]
(hmmm "waist" is "waste") 

This should of course not take up any more space than a single icon, when not in use. May such an improvement be a coding snack, or is it a full meal?

Date Published: 2/20/2007

Overview:

Windows Desktop Search (WDS) 3.01 is a minor update to Windows Desktop Search 3.0 that adds: support for indexing UNC files, additional support for enterprise deployment, and stability improvements. WDS 3.01 installs on Windows XP and Window Server 2003, but is not needed for Windows Vista since the WDS component is already included in Vista. Windows Desktop Search 3.01 helps you to find, preview, and use your documents, e-mail, music, photos, and other items. The search engine in Windows Desktop Search 3.01 is a Windows service that is also used by applications such as Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 and OneNote 2007 to index application content and deliver instant results when searching within that application.

If you choose to install and use Windows Desktop Search, you can search for e-mail, documents and other files located on your computer. No information about the files on your computer will be sent to Microsoft as part of this process. Instead, Windows Desktop Search will index the content of your computer and store the index file on your computer. You can customize Windows Desktop Search to index only specified folders on your computer. Windows Desktop search will not store copies of e-mail or documents after they are deleted.

[Curt]

- just to clear things up: Waist on a woman is not a waste.


  sorry, I couldn't help it.

----

I know I can hide this toolbar, but I think the very idea about Desktop Search 3 being FAST will fade, if the bar is hidden.

[dk70]

Yeah very nice - beats Google, Copernic by far I think. But some have had problems with 3.01 - will reindex everything for every boot. More about this bug or whatever at the 2 Search forum here http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/default.aspx?ForumGroupID=25&SiteID=1 Should be on page 1 or 2. An example http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=1319409&SiteID=1 Different solutions and ideas on what is wrong. None applied to me - I thought Kaspersky but not sure, did not uninstall AV to check - disable might not be enough. Also tried 3.0 which should not cause this but it did. Helped some. 3.0 is still available for download.

Bar can be floating and I think also called by shortcut. Is in Explorer and even IE with Live bar as well. If a waste you dont use WDS enough

[Curt]

some have had problems with 3.01 - will reindex everything for every boot.

Your words made me watch my WDS 3.01, but its giving me no problems at all.

[Nighted]

Why anyone would use this, I have no clue. Unless having that search box on your taskbar is somehow indispensable...

Get Locate and use the -r switch with something like SlickRun or FARR and you'll be happier than you were before.
Also, choose when, and how often it indexes.

I should mention that to index about a terabyte of data takes only a couple minutes.

Get Locate instead.

[edbro]

Why anyone would use this, I have no clue.

Get Locate and use the -r switch with something like SlickRun or FARR and you'll be happier than you were before.

Maybe it is because they do very different things??? Locate only looks for filenames. GDS, Copernic, etc search inside files/documents for content.

Can Locate tell you where that pdf is that has the words "some content" in it? I doubt it.

[dk70]

Yeah no comparison, also the instant preview is pretty neat. Unless you have a need for such indexing it might seem like Locate is so much better but not really in same category. I tried it out because I thought it could be useful for some less file-aware people I know - I came to like it more than expected.

I still have Locate installed - even more permanently since I discovered a plugin for Total Commander. Locate + TC is twice the speed http://www.ghisler.ch/board/viewtopic.php?t=14087

Check out help file of WDS - has quite advanced command line options. Worked really well, fast as hxxx - just that reindexing problem.

[TucknDar]

I still have Locate installed - even more permanently since I discovered a plugin for Total Commander. Locate + TC is twice the speed http://www.ghisler.ch/board/viewtopic.php?t=14087

It's an awesome combination!

Locate is super for its use, but not really the same category as GDS, WDS and copernic, as has been said a few times now

[tomos]

does WDS keep indexing your drive(s)
or
can you tell it to do it -

• manually
• or, e.g. at a particular time each day/week/whatever

[urlwolf]

I think you can tell it when to index.
I don't see much disk activity since I installed it, I must have been able to swtich off indexing (don't remember how).

[Carol Haynes]

Doesn't support Outlook - bummer ...

[Josh]

Dont know what you're talking about Carol, WDS handles outlook PST files just fine, as well as indexing exchange mail server messages.

[Carol Haynes]

There doesn't appear to be an option for indexing outlook messages (there is for outlook express). I looked at the filetypes supported and PST was unchecked - when I checked it it said it would index as a text file !!

It suggests in the help file that it supports Outlook 2000 (and installs a search bar inside Outlook 2000) but only in corporate mode according to the help file (which is presumably why exchange is supported). It doesn't seem to work with Outlook 2003 and what if you aren't connected in corporate mode??? The file format changed from Office XP to 2003 so maybe that is the problem. Typical of MS not to support its own products.

[Curt]

does WDS keep indexing your drive(s)
or
can you tell it to do it -

WDS 3.01 will index when your PC is almost idle. Remember at first setup to tell it to scan all of the pc (if you want this). Minimum is My Documents and E-mails only. I have so far (3 days) not seen any CPU usage from WDS at all, at least not any worth mentioning - so I disagree with dk70 on this.

[Curt]

does WDS keep indexing your drive(s)
or
can you tell it to do it -

• manually
• or, e.g. at a particular time each day/week/whatever

Sorry, my previous answer was not too precise. WDS will index whenever a change is made and you don't use too much CPU. If you thinks NOT, you can right-click the icon in the Notification Area [attachimg=#] and choose to Postpone Indexing (so now I might disagree less with dk70 than before) - or you can click Index Now.

WDS will btw also scan your Appointments and Contacs in Outlook.

[dk70]

Think you are right about the little Outlook issue http://search.msn.com.sg/docs/toolbar.aspx?t=MSNTbar_TROU_CANTFINDANYEMAIL.htm - but in general it works for everything or there is a plugin/ifilter available.

Dont think there is so much control over WDS, not like you can schedule like with Locate32. Can always shut down service, restart. Idea is definitely to leave it running.

My problem was WDS started to index from scratch at every boot and I think also if I manually told it to rescan. Seems to work fast enough, though of course a bit heavy on the harddisk - Im used to Kaspersky so no problem Should have done more troubleshooting but gave up when I saw other people with similar problem. Could be I should not have told WDS to scan almost every folder/file on hd. I wanted more than just "my documents". Did exclude some but 99% were targets.

[Carol Haynes]

Think you are right about the little Outlook issue http://search.msn.com.sg/docs/toolbar.aspx?t=MSNTbar_TROU_CANTFINDANYEMAIL.htm - but in general it works for everything or there is a plugin/ifilter available.

So is it meant to work "out of the box" for Outlook XP, 2003 and 2007 ??

Seems strange that Outlook is not mentioned in any of the settings at all (I have other PST files that aren't loaded into my Outlook profile by default so how would they be indexed) and also ONLY Outlook 2000 is mentioned in the help files - given that that is now 4 generations of outlook ago now there seems to be something missing somewhere along the line.

Is anyone actually using this with Outlook 2002 and later - can you search your emails? Given that for me this is the major search issue (as I have tens of thousands of archived emails) there is no point in me installing this if this basic requirement isn't met.

[Nighted]

Well, if WDS is anything like google desktop search, then it is limited to how many files it can index. If it doesn't index everything (google couldn't even come close on my machine, and massive index files as well) then you aren't going to find what you're looking for. Period.

[BrandonLive]

Hi guys,

Brandon from the Windows Search team here.

WDS 3.01 (and Vista) do support indexing of Outlook, including Outlook 2003 (and everything else after Outlook 2000).  After installing WDS 3.01, the next time you run Outlook it should set itself up for indexing.  If you have Outlook running, try restarting it and then looking in the Indexing Options control panel again.

You do NOT have to change the settings for PST files, and in fact you should not.  WDS does not index PST files, it indexes Outlook items via the MAPI protocol - so in order for the contents of a PST to be indexed it must be loaded in Outlook and Outlook must be running.  There are a number of reasons for this, including authentication which Outlook handles automatically.

As for when indexing occurs - After the initial index is built, WDS will receive notifications every time a change is made to the filesystem or to Outlook.  It will then put those notifications in a queue, and process them in the background.  If you are using the PC (or there is high CPU usage, hard disk usage, etc), those notifications will be processed more slowly.  If your PC is idle, they will be processed immediately.  You can also use the WDS tray icon / status window to control the indexer.  Pressing "Index Now" will process the notification queue immediately.  Pressing "Snooze" will stop processing of notifications completely for the duration of the snooze operation, however notifications will still be queued so that WDS doesn't lose track of changes you've made (files deleted, moved, etc).

On a more modern PC, you can enable the "Index Now" function and just leave it enabled.  This is how I run my desktop systems, as it means the indexer always processed notifications immediately - keeping the index always up-to-date.  In my experience, this has no negative impact on performance.  But that will of course vary by your system and configuration.

As for comments about the Deskbar taking up too much space, that's why it was moved into the Start Menu on Vista =)  On Vista, you just click on the Start button and start typing (or press the Windows key then start typing) to perform a search.  Though you'd be surprised how often people ask to have the search box back on the Taskbar... no idea why, though.

Hope that helps address some of the questions/concerns here.  You can also visit my blog where I frequently write about WDS and Vista.  http://brandonlive.com ; Or e-mail me, brandon[AT]brandonlive.com

[Carol Haynes]

Hi guys,

Brandon from the Windows Search team here.

WDS 3.01 (and Vista) do support indexing of Outlook, including Outlook 2003 (and everything else after Outlook 2000).  After installing WDS 3.01, the next time you run Outlook it should set itself up for indexing.  If you have Outlook running, try restarting it and then looking in the Indexing Options control panel again.

You do NOT have to change the settings for PST files, and in fact you should not.  WDS does not index PST files, it indexes Outlook items via the MAPI protocol - so in order for the contents of a PST to be indexed it must be loaded in Outlook and Outlook must be running.  There are a number of reasons for this, including authentication which Outlook handles automatically.

Thanks for the clarification - that really rules out WDS for me. I have about 10 PST files (some quite large) which I want to be able to search instantly but I definitely don't want them to load every time I open Outlook (it slows Outlook startup to cup of coffee time). If there is no way of indexing offline PST files I need a different solution.

I quite like X1 Enterprise Client which does just what I want - but I had some issues with PST files before. That was when I was using Outlook XP now I am using 2003 and I see that X1 has been updated quite a few times since my issue. I have decided to give it another go. Seems OK at the moment but I will keep my eye on things closely for a while.

FWIW X1 is free and gives the option of having a task bar search box (like WDS) and/or a single tray icon. It also has an Outlook toolbar which allows you to do some things to emails within X1 (like mark as read etc.) see x1.com. Like Google etc. it seems to generate quite large indexes but you can put those where you want and it doesn't seem to have problems indexing larges drives (I have over 1Tb which indexes fine) and gives the options to index contents or just filenames (so combining the functions of a file interogation suite and a simple file locator) amongst other options.

The only thing X1 won't do as far as I can tell is index removable drives - my USB drive doesn't even show up in the drives list to be indexed and network folders are disabled in the free client - though they tell you to contact them if you want that functionality - not sure if that is available for free or if you have to buy a different client. It used to be included as standard.

[Curt]

... Deskbar taking up too much space, that's why it was moved into the Start Menu on Vista =)  .... people ask to have the search box back on the Taskbar... no idea why, though.

Thanks a lot, Brandon, for taking the time to enlighten us on this - and welcome at DC's! Being a Vista-man you might not care too much about WDS on XP, but it would be interesting to know if anything might be done to minimize WDS 'Deskbar' on the XP Taskbar, or if all efforts are put into Vista only?? I fear I know the answer!

[Carol Haynes]

Try right clicking on the taskbar and then in the Toolbars sub menu untick it (you can always re-enable it when you need it)

Also - you could try making sure the taskbar toolbars are unlocked and then dragging the left bar of the WDS toolbar to the right. Not sure if that will work (I haven't got it installed at the mo) but it works for most toolbars.

[BrandonLive]

Try right clicking on the taskbar and then in the Toolbars sub menu untick it (you can always re-enable it when you need it)

Also - you could try making sure the taskbar toolbars are unlocked and then dragging the left bar of the WDS toolbar to the right. Not sure if that will work (I haven't got it installed at the mo) but it works for most toolbars.

True, if you don't use the Deskbar you can always disable it and just use WINKEY+F to pop up the full search UI whenever you need it.  Personally, I made heavy use of the Deskbar when I was on XP (both for searching and app launching / aliases), which is part of the reason I wrote Start++ for Vista to make the start menu support some of the advanced Deskbar functionality that it doesn't have out-of-the-box.

[Curt]

So far I have moved it just around the corner:

[attachimg=#]

It doesn't look as nice as I would want my desktop to, but it works.

[dk70]

So I installed WDS 3.01 again and now no reindex mania. Practically same conditions except a minor update to Kaspersky AV. I would think difference is Ive yet to add that many folders. Last time I included almost everything from start, this time I add one at a time. Did exclude some irelevant folders like Temp etc. but most were target. Will assume that was problem.

Was sure Kaspersky had bad influence so before indexing first time I put SearchProtocolhost.exe, SearchFilterHost.exe, SearchIndexer.exe and WindowsSearch.exe in Trusted applications. Problem is WDS also works correctly if I dont