Windows Desktop Search
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Windows Desktop Search | |
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| Developer: | Microsoft |
|---|---|
| Latest release: | 3.01 / February 20, 2007 |
| OS: | Microsoft Windows |
| Use: | |
| License: | Proprietary EULA |
| Website: | Windows Desktop Home Page |
Windows Desktop Search (or WDS) is an indexed search platform released by Microsoft for the Windows operating system. Before its official release it was known as MSN Desktop Search, and is sometimes referred to as such because of its inclusion in the MSN Toolbar, when it was first launched.
Windows 2000 through Windows Server 2003 also included an Indexing Service which also indexed the files on a hard drive. However, it lacked its own UI and had to be used with either the the Windows Explorer search UI or an MMC snap-in. It also did not have word-wheeling capabilities.
[edit] Overview
Upon installation, Windows Desktop Search builds an index of the files on a user's hard drive. The initial creation of this index can take up to several hours, but this is a one-time event. Once the index is complete, Windows Desktop Search is able to use this index to search results more rapidly than it would take to search through all the files on your computer. Searches are performed not only on file names, but also on the contents of the file (provided a proper handler for the file type is installed) as well as the keywords and comments the file is tagged with. For example, searching the computer for The Beatles would return a list of the Beatles music on your computer, as well as any e-mails and documents that include the phrase "The Beatles" in their titles or contents. Windows Desktop Search, by default, includes handlers for most common filetypes. WDS also features word-wheeled search (or search-as-you-type). It begins searching as soon as characters are entered in the search box, and keeps on refining and filtering the search results as more characters are typed in. As an advantage, this results in finding the requires files even before the full search text is entered.
Windows Desktop Search is available for Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003.[1] Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system includes built-in indexed search capabilities out-of-the-box. In Windows Vista, however, it is called Instant Search.[2] The search API in WDS 3.0 is compatible with the Windows Search API in Windows Vista. And like Vista, the indexer runs as a Windows Service, so that a single index as well as a single instance of the service can be shared across all users - thereby improving performance.
Microsoft Office Outlook 2007, as well as Microsoft Office OneNote 2007 requires either Windows Desktop Search or Windows Search to be installed and running to use the enhanced search capabilities of the applications.
