Windows Desktop Search 3.01

[CoolCatBad]

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details...;DisplayLang=en

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.

Note WDS 3.01 can be installed as a new install or as an upgrade from 02.05.xxxx, 02.06.xxxx or 03.00.0000. On an upgrade from 03.00.0000, you will not need to rebuild your index.

This download package includes the Update.exe, ADM File and Add-in for Files on Microsoft Networks.

[skase]

thank god they are continuing development! I cant upgrade my work computer to vista yet and I need this program. (Its so buggy).

[Brandon Live Veteran]

Darn, beat me to it :)

http://brandonlive.com/2007/02/20/wds-301-has-shipped/

[Slimy]

Darn, beat me to it :)

http://brandonlive.com/2007/02/20/wds-301-has-shipped/

Thanks for posting anyways; you reminded me to add the Server 2003 link. :)

However, I believe your x64 link is dead - I can't find the correct one on Microsoft's site either.

[Brandon Live Veteran]

Yeah the x64 link isn't up quite yet (neither is the updated WDS website, though it's starting to come up now). That's pretty normal as things have to propogate around the various servers and what not.

[User6060]

Cool, any news Brandon on when that new interface for WDS was going to be implemented or has that been moved off the timetable for now.

[Brandon Live Veteran]

Cool, any news Brandon on when that new interface for WDS was going to be implemented or has that been moved off the timetable for now.

Sorry, can't comment or speculate on possible future updates. Well, nothing beyond the last blog post on the subject.

[Mr Winkle]

does anybody know how to file bug reports for this?

there is a bug which has persisted since the original release which is annoying and should be fixed.

to reproduce: right click the tray icon and select windows desktop options > click advanced > click file types > select log files

when you click a log file in the results it opens in notepad rather than previews.

[Brandon Live Veteran]

does anybody know how to file bug reports for this?

there is a bug which has persisted since the original release which is annoying and should be fixed.

to reproduce: right click the tray icon and select windows desktop options > click advanced > click file types > select log files

when you click a log file in the results it opens in notepad rather than previews.

Hmm I actually know of this bug (I remember because it affects Trillian's log files in particular). I'll look into it, thanks. Oh, and there is a workaround I wrote about a while back:

http://brandonlive.com/2005/07/15/want-to-...illian-im-logs/

[azz0r_wugg]

Any point installing this if I'm using Vista?

[Slimy]

Any point installing this if I'm using Vista?

but is not needed for Windows Vista since the WDS component is already included in Vista

[azz0r_wugg]

Will the built in Vista version be updated with these updates?

[Mr Winkle]

Thank you very much Brandon - that worked perfectly!

I have a couple of questions about WDS; i like the way it works and i like the way it integrates into the normal find dialog.

Am i right in thinking this version indexes Outlook messages without Outlook running? This is much better.

i read somewhere that WDS only indexes the contents of files up to a certain amount, is this true and if so, is there a way to remove this restriction so it indexes the full file regardless of its size?

also, (i know this will be dependant on the spec of the pc to an extent) but what is the practical limit on the number of files which WDS can index? I want to index our file server at work (it has many users and probably several million files) - it killed copernic and google for some reason missed half the files - how well does WDS work on large file sets?

Thanks again for the tip

Mark

[lsquare]

What are the essential add-ons for WDS 3.01?

[Brandon Live Veteran]

Thank you very much Brandon - that worked perfectly!

I have a couple of questions about WDS; i like the way it works and i like the way it integrates into the normal find dialog.

Am i right in thinking this version indexes Outlook messages without Outlook running? This is much better.

Actually, no. Outlook must be running since indexing happens via MAPI. With Outlook 2007, messages are "pushed" into the indexer instead of crawled / "pulled" like in previous versions. But it still must be running (largely for password-protection issues, etc).

i read somewhere that WDS only indexes the contents of files up to a certain amount, is this true and if so, is there a way to remove this restriction so it indexes the full file regardless of its size?

There might be a place in the registry to adjust it, but it's probably not necessary. For example, WDS will index any file regardless of its physical size. So a 1GB video will have its metadata indexed just fine. The total textual content cannot exceed some limit, I think it's 16MB in WDS 3.0 but I'd have to verify that. That does not mean a 20MB Word file won't be fully indexed, since most of the Word file format isn't actually text, but other mark-up. Basically it's not something that you should ever run into.

also, (i know this will be dependant on the spec of the pc to an extent) but what is the practical limit on the number of files which WDS can index? I want to index our file server at work (it has many users and probably several million files) - it killed copernic and google for some reason missed half the files - how well does WDS work on large file sets?

In my experience, you don't want to go over a few hundred thousand items. If you do, you're better off using the SharePoint indexer since it's designed for that purpose (and tuned to support millions of items).

What are the essential add-ons for WDS 3.01?

Installing Adobe Reader 8.0 will install the PDF filter for indexing those files. Other than that, I can't think of anything off the top of my head.

[lsquare]

Actually, no. Outlook must be running since indexing happens via MAPI. With Outlook 2007, messages are "pushed" into the indexer instead of crawled / "pulled" like in previous versions. But it still must be running (largely for password-protection issues, etc).

There might be a place in the registry to adjust it, but it's probably not necessary. For example, WDS will index any file regardless of its physical size. So a 1GB video will have its metadata indexed just fine. The total textual content cannot exceed some limit, I think it's 16MB in WDS 3.0 but I'd have to verify that. That does not mean a 20MB Word file won't be fully indexed, since most of the Word file format isn't actually text, but other mark-up. Basically it's not something that you should ever run into.

In my experience, you don't want to go over a few hundred thousand items. If you do, you're better off using the SharePoint indexer since it's designed for that purpose (and tuned to support millions of items).

Installing Adobe Reader 8.0 will install the PDF filter for indexing those files. Other than that, I can't think of anything off the top of my head.

What if I install a different PDF program? Where can I get the PDF Filter? From WDS website?

What if I use WDS in a system with several million different files? I think there are over 80,000 different files in my hard drive.

[Brandon Live Veteran]

What if I install a different PDF program? Where can I get the PDF Filter? From WDS website?

Unfortunately Adobe hasn't made the new IFilter available seperately. I think FoxIt is working on an update to their IFilter to support 3.0/Vista, though. DON'T install the old Adobe seperate 6.0 IFilter if you find it somewhere. It won't work with 3.0 or Vista and can actually cause problems with your system.

What if I use WDS in a system with several million different files? I think there are over 80,000 different files in my hard drive.

I've never heard of a desktop system with severeal millions of files to be indexed. 80,000 is a more reasonable number and it will have no problem with that (though the average user has ~10,000 data files).

[lsquare]

Unfortunately Adobe hasn't made the new IFilter available seperately. I think FoxIt is working on an update to their IFilter to support 3.0/Vista, though. DON'T install the old Adobe seperate 6.0 IFilter if you find it somewhere. It won't work with 3.0 or Vista and can actually cause problems with your system.

I've never heard of a desktop system with severeal millions of files to be indexed. 80,000 is a more reasonable number and it will have no problem with that (though the average user has ~10,000 data files).

Didn't WDS had a PDF filter when it was first launched? I'm no average user ;).

Also does Vista have any problem indexing millions of files? I have a copy of Vista, but I uninstalled it because I'm still pretty much attached to Windows XP for compatibility issues.

[Brandon Live Veteran]

Didn't WDS had a PDF filter when it was first launched? I'm no average user ;) .

There was a downloadable add-in from Adobe, but that version doesn't work with WDS 3.0, and Adobe only ships the new version of the add-in with the Adobe Reader 8.0 download.

Also does Vista have any problem indexing millions of files? I have a copy of Vista, but I uninstalled it because I'm still pretty much attached to Windows XP for compatibility issues.

Vista uses the same indexer as WDS 3.x. So it will work the same in that regard.

I have known people that have indexed near one million items, but like I said - a few hundred thousand is probably the max you'd ever want. Why would you be indexing that many anyway? If you have a file server or something, there are better options (like SharePoint).

[lsquare]

There was a downloadable add-in from Adobe, but that version doesn't work with WDS 3.0, and Adobe only ships the new version of the add-in with the Adobe Reader 8.0 download.

Vista uses the same indexer as WDS 3.x. So it will work the same in that regard.

I have known people that have indexed near one million items, but like I said - a few hundred thousand is probably the max you'd ever want. Why would you be indexing that many anyway? If you have a file server or something, there are better options (like SharePoint).

Obviously that would mean that I would have to dish out more money! Ideally I would like to stick with free solutions.

[Brandon Live Veteran]

Obviously that would mean that I would have to dish out more money! Ideally I would like to stick with free solutions.

Well, that depends. If a file server is running Windows Server 2003, then Windows SharePoint 3.0 is a free add-on and has the same indexing capabilities as the full Office SharePoint 2007 package (it just can't index other servers like Office SharePoint 2007 can).

[lsquare]

Well, that depends. If a file server is running Windows Server 2003, then Windows SharePoint 3.0 is a free add-on and has the same indexing capabilities as the full Office SharePoint 2007 package (it just can't index other servers like Office SharePoint 2007 can).

I do have access to MSNDAA and I think Windows Server 2003 is provided for free. Does it matter which version of Windows Server 2003?

[Brandon Live Veteran]

I do have access to MSNDAA and I think Windows Server 2003 is provided for free. Does it matter which version of Windows Server 2003?

Don't think so. Just need to install this.

[Mr Winkle]

Actually, no. Outlook must be running since indexing happens via MAPI. With Outlook 2007, messages are "pushed" into the indexer instead of crawled / "pulled" like in previous versions. But it still must be running (largely for password-protection issues, etc).

that is a real shame, the push mechanism i think is better, i know many people live their lives in outlook but i'm one of these people that tend to only open it occasionly, so something that indexes it regardless of it being open would be helpful. i understand the mechanism which has been employed, but i feel that it is quite limiting in some cases.

There might be a place in the registry to adjust it, but it's probably not necessary. For example, WDS will index any file regardless of its physical size. So a 1GB video will have its metadata indexed just fine. The total textual content cannot exceed some limit, I think it's 16MB in WDS 3.0 but I'd have to verify that. That does not mean a 20MB Word file won't be fully indexed, since most of the Word file format isn't actually text, but other mark-up. Basically it's not something that you should ever run into.

it would be nice if there was an option even if it was hidden deep within the registry to turn this on or enlarge the limit - as text and source files greater than this size might not be indexed until the end, although i agree for most users this won't ever be a problem it would be nice if there was an option. i do work with large header files etc and it would be good to know that these files are fully indexed.

Installing Adobe Reader 8.0 will install the PDF filter for indexing those files. Other than that, I can't think of anything off the top of my head.

the adobe acrobat filter (installing during the application) is an example of how it should be done. it just seemed to work. all apps should do it this way (like with thumb previews etc too)

one thing i would like to see in wds is perhaps a 'lite' preview option, everytime you click a word or adobe acrobat file to preview, the actual host applications are run in the background, surely it is possible (like copernic) to present a rendered cut down view for speed. on my pc it's fine, but at work it's just unusable. i'd be prepared to live with bare bones minimal formatting / no images etc. again, as an option it would be good for those who don't like it.

on a side note, but is it possible for 3rd parties to replace the search functionality entirely in vista, or must they always use the inbuilt engine?

[Glowstick]

Will the built in Vista version be updated with these updates?

How about answering this one instead, considering how broken WDS in Vista is when it comes towards indexing Outlook inboxes but kind of forgets to change them or remove them from the index when they get respectively read or deleted.