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Not necessarily a "Windows Experience" (although it does improve the Windows Experience) - I'm making this post on behalf of the Windows Search Team. Oh and I am really excited for this release.
Today we released the final version of Windows Search 4.0 to Microsoft Download Center. Windows Search 4.0 updates search in Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008 and Windows Home Server. This release comes after a public Windows Search 4.0 Preview, which was a success thanks to great community participation - with around 300,000 downloads. Since the Preview was released, a number of quality improvements have been made to the product based on feedback provided by the community.
Download: Windows Search 4.0 for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 (x86)
Download: Windows Search 4.0 for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 (x64)
More download packages are available on http://support.microsoft.com/kb/940157.
So, what's new in this release?
First and foremost: we've introduced some performance and reliability improvements. Queries are faster, as is indexing - how much faster depends on your machine and your data. Improved reliability means that system failures won't get in the way of the indexer and all of your data will be scanned and available for searches.
We've also extended remote index discovery, also known as PC-to-PC searches, which allows data to be searched quickly and efficiently across machines running Windows Search 4.0. This means that Windows Vista-to-Windows XP or Windows Vista-to-Windows Server 2008 queries are now possible.
Additionally, Windows Search 4.0 offers manageability improvements that IT Pros should take note of.
For starters, we have extended Group Policy to control more aspects of search functionality and made this control more granular with per-user policies. You can use Group Policy Objects to control how desktop search accesses remote resources - such as Microsoft Exchange Server resources or file shares - to manage network utilization.
Speaking of accessing Microsoft Exchange Server - if your organization selects not to use Microsoft Office Outlook in cached mode, you can set a Group Policy to index Exchange in online mode. Windows Search 4.0 will then index with minimal impact to the server. Our internal testing of this configuration shows significant decrease in the load on the server and the network as compared to Windows Desktop Search 3.01.
IT Pros can deploy a new link that will be added to the Instant Search UI of Windows Vista (or Windows Search UI on Windows XP) on client PCs and allow the query entered in the search box to access your company's search server, by opening the search UI of the server in your browser and executing the query in it. With this functionality, users get a single launch pad for all of their searches. For more information on how to add customized links into the instant Search UI, click here.
Based on a large amount of customer feedback, we have added support for indexing files encrypted with EFS. Users in an organization can now encrypt files and still be able to search their contents. When running on Windows Vista, they also can get an additional level of data protection by using BitLocker and storing their index on the protected drive.
Today, Windows Search 4.0 can be downloaded for installation (download links from Microsoft Download Center listed above). If you need Windows Search 4.0 deployed in a large organization, you can use System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) or other infrastructure solutions.
In the future, we will make Windows Search 4.0 available on Windows Update as well. At that time you will be able to install Windows Search 4.0 off the update site directly or deploy it in your organization using WSUS.
Once Windows Search 4.0 becomes available on Windows Update various Windows users will experience the following:
More on the improvements in Windows Search 4.0 can be found here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/940157.
pingback from: http://www.winsupportforum.de/forum/news/793-windows-search-4-0-final-als-download-verfuegbar.html
GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!
I tried WS4.
1. Still, free or paid assisted support does not seem to be available on the Support page. MS has never offered proper support for Windows (Desktop) Search.
2. Give us virtual folders on XP.
3. Where is support for Outlook 2003? Why only the latest version is being supported?
someone, I believe in the previous post (regarding the Windows Search 4.0 Preview) it was confirmed Outlook 2003 is in fact supported. What makes you think its not supported? Let me know and I'll look into it.
Thanks,
Brandon
PingBack from http://beqiraj.net/post/2008/06/Windows-Search-4-0.aspx
(Un)fortunately, I installed Windows Search 4.0 Preview. Now, as the final version is released and Microsoft made "a number of quality improvements", the updater doesn't install the final version, appearently because there is already installed an update KB940157. On the other hand, there is no uninstaller of Windows Search (I didn't find any).
So, what to do?
maracuja, Windows Search 4.0 and the Windows Search 4.0 Preview install as updates to Windows Vista.
To uninstall:
1. Go to Control Panel.
2. Choose "Uninstall a program" under Programs.
3. Under "Tasks" on the left-hand side choose "View installed updates".
4. Scroll down and choose the Windows Search 4.0 Preview and uninstall.
You should be able to then install the final release version of Windows Search 4.0 once the Preview is removed.
Version 4.0 installed on all platforms here, and the performance is stunning.
Brandon,
I was reading your blog post from June 3 on Windows Search 4 and also
digging through the comments. On June 4 a user named "Someone"
commented on WS4 support on Outlook 2003. You responded back to the
user that Outlook 2003 was supported and that you would look into it.
I didn't see any further comments on that. As someone using Outlook
2003 in a large corporate environment I think I know what the user is
referring to. I, personally, was hoping that WS4 would replace the outlook built
in search engine in 2003 with the WS4 engine. However, that does not
appear, to me, to have happened (unless there is a setting I don't
know about). So, while I can search for items in WS4 that are in my
email, if I am in Outlook I still have to put up with the built in
tool. This means that if I want to do an effective search I have to
break my workflow and perform a search in another application. I
think that this is what "someone" was talking about in terms of
Outlook 2003 is not supported. Given this, is there a setting that I
can use to turn on WS4 search in Outlook 2003 or are there future
plans to back support to this product in the way described?
Thank you Brandon for the blog post and for your engagement with the
user community. Its nice to see that Microsoft is passionate about
the end-user experience.
Caseye
How exactly do you uninstall Windows Desktop Search 4 if it's...
A. Not showing up in Add or Remove Programs
B. Does not create an uninstall folder in C:\Windows
This is really annoying. I really dislike the new search and it feels almost impossible to uninstall.
Brandon --
Please pass along to your "good buds" on the windows search team that Window search 4.0 is a real disappointment.
1) Setting advanced options like what folders to include is erased with restarts of the machine. Oops.
2) Setting a particular location for the index (say i: where I; is a removable drive works initially, however if i: is removed or inaccessablie BSOD. (XP)
3) And I am still not convinced that it finds all files. Except for these "minor" issues, a phenomenal job of developing and testing!!!
If this had been a "real" release it would one thing but this was basically a bug release.
4) I would ask about the fuzzy search for related documents using similarity calculations, but I would settle for minimal feature set that really works.
Best
gleenn.maples@nospam.gmail.com
Windows Search 4 is all very nice if you want to search for word docs in your documents folder for example, but for a developer's point of view, it is useless. It only searches recognised file types, and there seems absolutely no way at all to make it search ALL files. This feature renders it a joke of a search tool.
Oh and why oh why does it still ask me "Did you find what you were searching for?" when no results were found in non-indexed locations?
Can we please have the old XP search tool back? That actually worked and was easy to tweak to make it search all files.
And Microsoft wonders why Vista is a lame duck product?
Hi - please can feed this back to the Windows Search Team?
Search 4 is not integrated well visually in Windows XP (esp. Classic mode). Almost all our computers at work run XP in classic mode (I use High Color Plum), and Search 4 looks completely out of place.
e.g. Set XP to Classic style, Plum color scheme. Right click the search icon in the task bar, choose Windows Search Options and have a look at the cr*ppy drive icon with a halo effect round it (and it’s not even the proper XP drive icon, but the Vista icon).
Seeing as 3/4 of all Windows machines are still running XP the Search/XP combo will be around for a long time. It would be great if you guys can properly integrate Search 4 in XP. (BTW - have a look at Firefox 3m which does a fantastic job of visual integration depending on the platform / style on which it runs - XP (classic or luna)/Vista/OS X/ Linux).
PLEASE HELP! I love outlook instant search but i do no want desktop search. Windows search 4.0 is a complete package of desktop and instant....I DONT WANT DESKTOP SEARCH. Any way around this?
This is totally frustrating and underwhelming. It is difficult if not impossible to specify exact search parameters or to know how Search is using the parameters supplied. For example, I want to search a Windows 2008 Server for all files named "web.config" containing a specific text. Even when I select "Always search for file names only" and disabled "Find partial matches" in Search Options, I still get a long list of files with names other than "web.config". The expanded search pane doesn't provide any way of simultaneously specifying complementary criteria such as file name, extension or expression sought. The only parameter I can specify is the file name, which (see above) is not taken seriously anyway. The selection of the categories "All", "E-mail", "Document", "Picture", "Music" and "Other" at the top of the screen may be helpful to a casual computer user, but is not very useful for a server operator. In Windows Search under XP, I am at least permitted to regress to the earlier "stupid" search form, after waiting for Windows Search to produce nothing of interest. Under Windows 2008, there seems to be no alternative.
My experience with Windows Search so far has been more frustrating than helpful. For example, I would like to search a Windows 2008 Server for all files named "web.config" containing a specific text. Even when I select "Always search for file names only" and disabled "Find partial matches" in Search Options, I still get a long list of files with names other than "web.config". The expanded search pane doesn't provide any way of simultaneously specifying complementary criteria such as file name, extension or expression sought. The only parameter I can specify is the file name, which (see above) is not taken seriously anyway. The selection of the categories "All", "E-mail", "Document", "Picture", "Music" and "Other" at the top of the screen may be helpful to a casual computer user, but is not so for a serve operator. In Windows Search under XP, I am at least permitted to regress to the earlier "stupid" search form, after waiting for Windows Search to produce nothing of interest. Windows 2008 aseems to offer no alternative.
I wish these upgrades can be done automatically much like how Chrome updates automatically for you. It's a hassle to keep track of all of these Microsoft's updates.