Windows Search 4 coming to Windows Updates Soon
Posted by HappyAndyK on 18 July 2008 - 18:43 · 19 comments & 6732 views
About the Author
Full name: Unknown
Forum name: +HappyAndyK
Contact: via forum PM
Submissions: Normal · Headline
Full name: Unknown
Forum name: +HappyAndyK
Contact: via forum PM
Submissions: Normal · Headline
Slashdot It!
Submit to reddit
Submit to blinklist
Bookmark on del.icio.us
Add to furl
Share on Facebook
Add to Windows Live
Add to Google- Advertisement
-
-
(5 replies)
#1 Posted by excalpius on 18 Jul 2008 - 19:37
- Features, improvements, bug fixes? In other words, what's the REASON we should be updating? What can we expect? Not a peep.
You have to go to the SOURCE (i.e. NOT the blogspam) to get this info, http://support.microsoft.com/kb/940157
"Windows Search 4.0 includes the following improvements:
• Support for indexing encrypted documents of local file systems
• Reduced affect on Microsoft Exchange when you index e-mail in online mode, and there is no local cache (.ost)
• Support for indexing online delegate mailboxes
• Support for client-to-client remote query to shared indexed locations
• Improved indexing performance
• Faster previewer updates for Windows XP
• Per-user Group Policy settings
• Windows software updates for Watson errors
• Support for the following new enterprise Group Policy objects..."
yada yada yada for admins only.
IMPORTANT CAVEATS, from the article...
#1 "One thing you should note: In order to make search functionality more efficient and reliable, the Windows Search team updated the structure of the search index in this release. This requires re-indexing users� data. The re-indexing occurs in the background after the installation is completed and a reboot has been performed."
That's a pretty important caveat for those of us with a million+ files to index...ahem.
Also FTA, #2, "Windows Search will release most of the requested resources and slow down the indexing process as soon as it detects mouse or keyboard activity, or when another application requires computer resources."
Um, it does that now, albeit VERY poorly. Because the indexer NEVER stops (it just "slows down a little"), the current version of Search continues to ping your drive during any and all video games, etc. affecting frame rates, lag, smoothness of play, etc. etc. I hope there are improvements in the handling of this in the new v4.
In other words, YOUR STUPID DESKTOP SEARCH INDEXER NEEDS TO LEARN HOW TO FULLY AND COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY *PAUSE*, MICROSOFT, not just "slow down a little".
my two cents -
#1.1 Posted by MioTheGreat on 19 Jul 2008 - 00:01
- Once it's indexed your hard drive, it should never have to scan the hard drive for anything. It uses journalling hooks to determine when it should update the index after that.
-
#1.2 Posted by franzon on 19 Jul 2008 - 09:44
- (excalpius said @ #1)the current version of Search continues to ping your drive during any and all video games, etc. affecting frame rates, lag, smoothness of play, etc. etc.
please don't say bullsh1t
-
#1.3 Posted by excalpius on 19 Jul 2008 - 23:23
- (franzon said @ #1.2)(excalpius said @ #1)the current version of Search continues to ping your drive during any and all video games, etc. affecting frame rates, lag, smoothness of play, etc. etc.
please don't say bullsh1t
Hello?! This is THE major complaint of Vista gamers (after driver based frame rates of last year). We have to disable to the Windows Search service for any competitive online play.
The search service DOES NOT STOP/PAUSE...it just slows down. It's lame and it's WELL documented.
So before you call BS on something, you might want to get your facts straight. -
#1.4 Posted by jmc777 on 20 Jul 2008 - 01:02
- (excalpius said @ #1.3)The search service DOES NOT STOP/PAUSE...it just slows down. It's lame and it's WELL documented.
It does stop. It stops once it has finished indexing the contents of the folders you've selected. From then on, when you add files to an indexed folder, it quickly indexes the new files as they're added, and then stops again.
Last edited by jmc777 on 20 Jul 2008 - 15:13 -
#1.5 Posted by excalpius on 21 Jul 2008 - 19:21
- (jmc777 said @ #1.4)(excalpius said @ #1.3)The search service DOES NOT STOP/PAUSE...it just slows down. It's lame and it's WELL documented.
It does stop. It stops once it has finished indexing the contents of the folders you've selected. From then on, when you add files to an indexed folder, it quickly indexes the new files as they're added, and then stops again.
But if you say, log off your main account (filled with Aero stuff, etc.) to say log on to a windows basic interface account for gaming, you'll see that it goes over some of the same territory, again and again, for many minutes.
Or if you reboot, restart, log off/on to the same account, etc.
Regardless, you keep saying "it stops when it finishes" and I keep saying "I needs to fully pause/stop when a full screen application runs". I am not saying you are incorrect. I'm saying it needs to be smarter to cover the situations GAMERS run into, etc. because sometimes Search NEVER seems to finish. And because it hits the hard drive in some retarded way, even those of us who game with Quad Cores with 4+ gb of RAM, etc. etc. have to manually STOP THE SEARCH SERVICE in order to get guaranteed frame rates for competitive online play.
You can keep saying it works just fine and dandy all you want. The rest of us are just going to keep running scripts to stop and start the service until Microsoft learns the difference between STOP/PAUSE and "activity reduced"...but still annoying as hell.
-
#2 Posted by hardgiant on 18 Jul 2008 - 20:20
- I hate the vista search so much I disabled it altogether. I really only need filename search like Avafind provides. The content search is slow and makes the index store a lot bigger.
-
#3 Posted by Necrolicious on 18 Jul 2008 - 20:24
- I installed this update last night and have yet to notice any slowdowns or pauses. I'm either extremely lucky or it's just an isolated incident for you.
-
#4 Posted by Kirkburn on 18 Jul 2008 - 22:47
- You just need to let it finish reindexing - once that's done, it will rarely have to do anything again. Also, it sounds like you're having it index an entire harddrive, which is not the point of the program :/
-
(2 replies)
#5 Posted by Airlink on 19 Jul 2008 - 03:46
- Am I the only one who never has trouble finding my stuff just by browsing Windows Explorer?
Seriously, I never have to "search" my hard drives with a search tool. I just browse my way there. -
#5.1 Posted by Doli on 19 Jul 2008 - 16:05
- Some people know where their stuff is on their computers they just like to access it from the start menu then by browsing through folders.
Also if you exclude all folders except the start menu shortcuts the "Start Search" becomes a nice way to start programs just by typing a few letters of the program name instead of "All Programs" -> Program folder(s) - > Program name. This will give you a small footprint on your drive (236 total items index for me).
Last edited by Doli on 19 Jul 2008 - 16:25 -
#5.2 Posted by Relativity_17 on 20 Jul 2008 - 00:04
- Uh, yeah, you've been trained to organize efficiently, memorize where things have been placed, and browse, because the search functionality has not been available. Granted old habits die hard, but I find searching to be faster, even if I'm sticking to my old routine of organizing everything well.
-
#6 Posted by JOHW on 19 Jul 2008 - 04:41
- Just installed it. Seems faster too
I index only about 700+ files. And yes, I could browse to the file using Windows explorer, but doing a search is much faster
-
(1 reply)
#7 Posted by WAR-DOG on 19 Jul 2008 - 10:55
- why the heck do you need an indexer? Never felt the need for one... I know where all my stuff is, nice and tidy sorted in folders...
-
#7.1 Posted by GP007 on 19 Jul 2008 - 11:55
- Maybe because not everyone is like that? Not everyone using Windows knows where they saved something just a second ago. Or they have no idea where some P2P app saves their files etc.
Yes it's nice to organize your stuff in folders and so forth, but not everyone does.
-
(1 reply)
#8 Posted by thug_iam on 20 Jul 2008 - 02:28
- How do you download it?
-
#8.1 Posted by jmc777 on 20 Jul 2008 - 13:02
- You can download it here: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/...owssearch4.mspx
Look for the 'Install it' link on the left.
-
(1 reply)
#9 Posted by Routerbad on 21 Jul 2008 - 14:15
- Once the initial index has been done the indexer doesn't even run in the background unless it needs to add to the index or re-index something. Which isn't often, unless you are always creating new files in indexed locations, like, alot of them. You really shouldn't need to index anything except the start menu programs and your personal folders and maybe some folder on another machine if you can't stand to navigate to it.
I've never seen lagging due to the indexer because the indexer is never running on my machine, because I may create new documents or files once in a while, but most of the new files created (program files) aren't indexed. -
#9.1 Posted by excalpius on 21 Jul 2008 - 19:28
- Log off and then back on. Every time you do, the indexer will be busy, no matter what for quite some time...ESPECIALLY on your main machine where you are most likely to have a zillion documents, pictures, etc.
Watch your task manager during this and see...
Then imagine trying to game during this crap.
And sometimes it just kinda randomly decides that this is the time, in the middle of your game, that it needs to go check to see if there are any journaling updates. Those hard drive hits gets you killed...online speaking.
All MS needed to do is have the stupid service/task run at IDLE priority. That is a proven method for dealing with this in MS own OS's for the past friggin umpteen years. Some wisenheimer at MS decided to "try something new and different", just because...and we get, the hardcore gamers, get stuck having to manually enable/disable their stupid service.
Ahem.
Windows Vista users with SP1 installed will see the update as a Recommended update. This means that, if a Windows Vista user has set their machine to automatically install updates, Windows Search 4.0 will automatically install on PCs running Windows Vista SP1. The release of Windows Search 4.0 to Windows Update will be gradual for these users. If you’re running Windows Vista SP1, and you would like to install it right away, you can go to the Windows Update control panel and install it manually once it is made available.