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MSN Search and Windows Desktop Search Tips & Tricks

Tom Warren   on 09 December 2005 - 18:42 · 26 comments & 8469 views

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Brandon Paddock and Andy Edmonds (Windows Desktop Search team) have sent the word to let us know they're both hosting a 1-hour MSDN Webcast at 1pm (Pacific time, 9PM GMT) today.

They'll be discussing tips, tricks, and hacks for MSN Search and for Windows Desktop Search.

They also plan to take some questions near the end of the webcast.

If you're interested in the Enterprise version of Windows Desktop Search or the home users version then head on over to the conference.

View: Register for Conference
View: Windows Desktop Search




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(2 replies) #1 ev0| on 09 Dec 2005 - 19:36
1st question : how come desktop search uses between 50 to 80 MB !!! ted:
#1.1 d4t4b0mb on 09 Dec 2005 - 20:11
Weird..mine is only using almost 8 megs. Is it indexing right now?
#1.2 ev0| on 09 Dec 2005 - 22:03
you're not counting the 4 different processes that the search engine uses... got to add them all up...
#2 xUnix on 09 Dec 2005 - 19:39
well, that's will depend on the number of indexable files.... more files, more space...
(7 replies) #3 lebmike on 09 Dec 2005 - 20:44
question: why everytime i reboot my machine, WDS_SL HANGS! every single time, or the indexing job
#3.1 karmakillernz on 09 Dec 2005 - 21:42
It happens on my work machine also. What's the size of your index? Mine's at around 212,000 at the moment. I'm trying to figure out if it's the large index causing the problem.
#3.2 threedaysdwn on 10 Dec 2005 - 01:47
No idea about WDS_SL. If you see an "End task" dialog on shutdown for the indexer, the indexer is NOT hung. But Windows thinks it is because it takes more than 5 seconds to shutdown. We've done a lot of work to improve that in the Corp release (make it shutdown faster) and are continuing to work on addressing this issue. But it still shows up even in the Corp release on some systems depending on the state of the indexer (and its size and such). It's very important to us to fix this.

That said, if you don't click the "end task" button the indexer should shutdown normally after a couple of seconds and the message should go away. You can also close WDS manually before shutting down your system to avoid the message.

#3.3 karmakillernz on 10 Dec 2005 - 02:27
threedaysdwn, you're right about it not actually being hung. My work machine behaves like you said - the "End Task" dialog box comes up for two or three WDS-related services when shutting down or restarting, but they do go away shortly after. I should have been more clear in my post.

I haven't noticed if the new corp version behaves the same way yet, as I haven't restarted since upgrading to it a week or so ago. I'll have to see next time I reboot.

Also, I was wondering if you'd had any reports of the following:

Occasionally, when searching on an email address using the search box on the task bar, WDS will suddenly grab a huge amount of memory (usually 700MB-1GB) when it displays the search results page. When I close the results page, the memory usage drops again. If I try again on the same query, it usually displays without the memory bug. It seems to only happen if I'm quick with pasting the email address in then hitting "Desktop". If you haven't come across this bug yet, where would I go to report it?
#3.4 threedaysdwn on 10 Dec 2005 - 08:16
Interesting. I can't seem to repro that on my system. You're saying it happens when you paste an e-mail address into the Deskbar? Does it happen when you paste or when you hit "enter" after pasting it? What program are you copying from?
#3.5 karmakillernz on 10 Dec 2005 - 09:11
It's usually copied from Outlook 2003. I copy it, paste it into the deskbar then immediately press enter. I'm not actually sure at what stage it happens (ie, before or after I hit enter), but I'll take notice next time it happens. Usually it's half-way through loading the search results window when Windows complains about lack of virtual memory and I notice task manager is showing 1.7gb RAM usage (I only have 768mb). It only happens sometimes and seems to be random, which is annoying when trying to reproduce of course.

I was guessing it had something to do with the size of the index. As mentioned above, it sits just above 112k items, about 200k of which are emails. It's like it loads it's entire uncompressed index into memory when it goes to search. Thankfully it's just a matter of closing the window and repeating the search to free it up, so it's not a big deal, but it's obviously not supposed to do that.
#3.6 threedaysdwn on 10 Dec 2005 - 21:27
I'm interested to hear if it occurs on the 2.6 (corp) release. There are a lot of bug fixes in that release, so it could very well have been taken care of.

But if it does happen again, please PM me.
#3.7 karmakillernz on 10 Dec 2005 - 23:14
Thanks threedaysdwn. I'll let you know.
#4 xUnix on 09 Dec 2005 - 22:06
I got only 50K and it happens here as well.
(1 reply) #5 sphbecker on 09 Dec 2005 - 22:38
question: why does it constantly tell me that it has finished indexing my system and it is now ready for me to search? It almost seems like it does it at least once everytime I turn the computer on.
#5.1 threedaysdwn on 10 Dec 2005 - 01:43
This is fixed in our Corp release and will be fixed in the consumer refresh when that happens (no date determined yet).
(2 replies) #6 MellonCollie on 09 Dec 2005 - 23:10
Is there a transcript of the webcast anywhere?
#6.1 threedaysdwn on 10 Dec 2005 - 21:28
#6.2 MellonCollie on 10 Dec 2005 - 22:59
Thanks for the link sir!
(1 reply) #7 tiwaris on 10 Dec 2005 - 18:01
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OK, here is the simple trick. Use google and google desktop instead of msn and windows desktop search respectively.
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#7.1 threedaysdwn on 10 Dec 2005 - 21:31
Have you tried WDS? I'm genuinely interested in why you'd prefer their product. That is, anything other than "because it's Google" I don't really think they have any advantages over us (whereas Copernic and X1 each have their unique features that could appeal to different users).
(1 reply) #8 Stunna on 10 Dec 2005 - 18:59
Whats the difference between the MSN desktop search and the windows desktop search?
#8.1 threedaysdwn on 10 Dec 2005 - 21:36
MSN Desktop Search was what MSN called the beta version of WDS that the MSN Toolbar shipped over a year ago.

When it was released back in April/May, the name was updated to reflect the fact that MSN was shipping a component of Windows as part of their bundle.

So to keep it simple, "MSN Desktop Search" is just and old version of Windows Desktop Search.
#9 Stunna on 11 Dec 2005 - 20:22
oh ok
i have msn desktop installed
I guess i should install WDS
#10 hardgiant on 12 Dec 2005 - 06:18
anybody have the link handy I don't want to fill out that stupid form.
#11 hardgiant on 12 Dec 2005 - 06:34
I give up, this board keeps destroying any links that I post

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/d esktopse.../downloads.mspx

Last edited by hardgiant on 12 Dec 2005 - 07:00

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