Windows Desktop Search 3.0 beta 2 is live!

Go get your paws on it!

Ws03: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=C41F35B3-CFD9-4DC0-9716-4FE2DB6E9935

Ws03 x64: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=6270F270-8D51-494F-91A0-4754CFBDE2D3

XP: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=0C1AE7C6-C548-4184-B575-7AB3913547D2

XP x64: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=BB9CAF06-7BEE-4E21-B8F8-F9F92F1B842E

And keep that feedback coming please....

Yes.

Notice those little things like 64 bit support and UI. Plus it will work on Office 2007 beta 2 and the upcoming beta 2 technical refresh.

The main difference is that it runs as a system service, instead of a user process.

I'll try to answer any question you guys come up with right here on Channel 9.

Is it power management aware this time, or should I expect my battery life to halve if I install it?

PaoloM wrote:

Notice those little things like 64 bit support and UI. Plus it will work on Office 2007 beta 2 and the upcoming beta 2 technical refresh.

The main difference is that it runs as a system service, instead of a user process.

I'll try to answer any question you guys come up with right here on Channel 9.

Damn, I'd left work by the time you posted this - I will be trying this out tomorrow when I am nearer to a PC

AndyC wrote:

Is it power management aware this time, or should I expect my battery life to halve if I install it?

It is power management aware, however I have to check if those bits went into the beta 2 build.

Is there an exposed API where we can query our data?

PaoloM wrote:



AndyC wrote: Is it power management aware this time, or should I expect my battery life to halve if I install it?

It is power management aware, however I have to check if those bits went into the beta 2 build.

It appears to still be indexing on my laptop when on battery, so I guess not.

CannotResolveSymbol wrote:



PaoloM wrote:  AndyC wrote: Is it power management aware this time, or should I expect my battery life to halve if I install it? It is power management aware, however I have to check if those bits went into the beta 2 build.

It appears to still be indexing on my laptop when on battery, so I guess not.

*IF* the power management bits are in the beta (I believe they are), this behaviour is normal. Indexing will continue until the battery reaches 25%, then it'll completely stop. The usual backoff rules (user activity, disk activity etc) still apply regarding the indexer speed.

The main difference is that WDS 2.6.5 had this limit set to 100% (effectively blocking indexing while on battery power) with the option to set it to 25% (if you checked "Index while on battery power" in the options dialog).

If we see real world issues with this change (after all, a beta is for gathering feedback ) we will either change the threshold or provide a powertoy to configure it.

Will WDS be pre-installed with Vista?

It should be built-in.

Almost a bug:
 
WDS indexed my Temporary Internet Files by default...  yikes!

LaBomba wrote:

Will WDS be pre-installed with Vista?

It should be built-in.

if I am correct from talking with Paolo, yes. That's the engine that drive the search from the start bar.

CannotResolveSymbol wrote:

Almost a bug:
 
WDS indexed my Temporary Internet Files by default...  yikes!

I know. It's already been fixed, but we were too late for including the code in beta 2

Cybermagellan wrote:



LaBomba wrote: Will WDS be pre-installed with Vista? It should be built-in.

if I am correct from talking with Paolo, yes. That's the engine that drive the search from the start bar.

Yes, in part. The indexing engine is the same for XP, Win2k3 and Vista. The UI in WDS 3.0 is specific to XP/2k3 because Vista already provides search boxes pretty much everywhere.

PaoloM wrote:


*IF* the power management bits are in the beta (I believe they are), this behaviour is normal. Indexing will continue until the battery reaches 25%, then it'll completely stop. The usual backoff rules (user activity, disk activity etc) still apply regarding the indexer speed.

Sounds pretty undesirable to me. Quite inside from the reduction in battery life (which was far from insignificant in the previous version), it was responsible for my tablet getting very, very hot. I'd certainly expect it to back off significantly on battery (else I'm likely to end up switching it off)

AndyC wrote:



PaoloM wrote:  *IF* the power management bits are in the beta (I believe they are), this behaviour is normal. Indexing will continue until the battery reaches 25%, then it'll completely stop. The usual backoff rules (user activity, disk activity etc) still apply regarding the indexer speed.

Sounds pretty undesirable to me. Quite inside from the reduction in battery life (which was far from insignificant in the previous version), it was responsible for my tablet getting very, very hot. I'd certainly expect it to back off significantly on battery (else I'm likely to end up switching it off)

There is a fairly heated discussion going on internally about this. The issue basically boils down to: do we want to have everything indexed in real time, all the time, or can we deal with not indexing but saving battery power?

Some customers want one way, some want the other; we'll take in account your feedback when we make the decision for the final bits.