Desktop Search... which product do you use?

Dr Lobster*
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just wondering what desktop search product you use?

currently seeing how windows desktop search performs - i've chosen it over coppernic because i like the way it integrates with usual windows search so i don't have to launch a seperate app.
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Rob Del Monte
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What is the difference between the search/find command in the start menu on the Windows O.s., and desktop search (exuse my ignorance!)?!
Rob Del Monte
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Why do people say “Quad bike” and “Double prime”—it is like saying a “three-sided square”, oh wait they do, “Tri-square”?!
Dr Lobster*
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products like windows desktop search, coppernic desktop search and google desktop search build an index of all the files on your computer during idle time, so if you want to search for something, you search the index rather than having windows visit very file/folder in the tree. it ends up being much much quicker and is how the web is searched. the downside of couse is that the index will always slightly be out of date and that if you have a lower spec pc, there will be a couple of extra processes in the background which may mean there is a performance hit.

i have quite a lot of c++ and delphi source codes on my pc, so searching for things in them using the normal integrated windows search takes ages, so i decided to give wds a try.
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Pete
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IIRC - WDS is a front end to th indexing service that was always in XP, it's just the indexing service was such a clart to access that nobody used it.
"He has to be larger than bacon"
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Gavin Scott
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Google desktop is my choice. I couldn't live without it now.

It certainly took a few days of idle time to index my machine, but now its done I can find anything in a trice.

The plug-in to Outlook is a million times faster than the built-in search.

My boss asked us all do install to our desktop machines too, and it was remarkable at tracking correspondence in my inbox (which contained 6,500 emails until I cleared half last week).

My only problem with it is the "automatic update" app which sat in the system tray, so I've disabled it for now. It was forever popping up to tell me there was new software available for the other applications provided with Google Packs.

Other than that small issue, I love it and will keep it.
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Pete
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the search inside outlook 2007 is very good.
"He has to be larger than bacon"
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Gavin Scott
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Hymagumba wrote:the search inside outlook 2007 is very good.
2007? Have I missed something? (like a year?)
Dr Lobster*
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i'm trialing copernic 2 at work - it's changed a lot from the version i installed a little while ago - what i like about it is if you type in 'boo' it actually selects that word in the preview - something which windows desktop search doesn't.

the memory footprint is about 10 mb.


i'm going to have a look at google desktop search tonite in my vm.
cat
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Having moved from Mac, with the excellent Spotlight, to Windows I found a desktop search essential. Not tried Copernic, so can't comment on that, but here's a run down of what I thought of the others:

Google Desktop Search - Initially tried this, thinking that the Google talent at web search would translate to the computer, but in my opinion it's a nightmare. Took ages to index anything, and frequently told me it had completed indexing only to say "2% of files indexed" just a few hours later. Found it incredibly annoying and just a bit clumsy to use. Appreciate I may have had a bad time of it, and Gavin seems to have got on well, but wasn't really for me.

Yahoo Desktop Search - Very quick to index and in terms of the content it searches it's probably more advanced than others on offer. Took about 5/10 mins to index my hard drive. Interface is really nasty though, and looks like it's come out of Windows 98... there's no popup search option so you have to make a bit of an effort to find something.

Windows Desktop Search - Expected it to be fairly crap, given MSN's awful search online. However, unquestionably the best of the lot. About as quick as Yahoo to index and the Quick Search box sits neatly in the taskbar and can be pulled up with a short keystroke - also a seperate window if you want more detailed results and a preview window. You can tell it to Index constantly, when idle, or make it index on demand. Haven't noticed any performance drag. It's certainly modelled on the Spotlight approach, and I've found it works very well.

Incidentally, anyone remember Altavista Discovery? *Sigh*
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Pete
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Gavin Scott wrote:
Hymagumba wrote:the search inside outlook 2007 is very good.
2007? Have I missed something? (like a year?)
it's a beta and it looks like this (well word does)
<img src="http://www.hymagumba.com/uploads/word2k7.jpg">

I love it. Outlook's compose window is new style, as is powerpoint. Publisher and the other "less important" programs are the same as their 2003 versions with some minor changes.
"He has to be larger than bacon"
cat
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Seperate

What's wrong with that?

Obviously the spell checker needs work.
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