LiveSide - News blog : Search Center

Microsoft releases public beta of Windows Search 4.0

Chris — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 06:25:51 GMT

Microsoft has just released a public beta of Windows Search 4.0, an update to the existing search technologies in Windows XP and Windows Vista. The knowledge base article lists the main updates as:

Support for the Encrypting File System (EFS)
Reduced affect on Microsoft Exchange when you index e-mail in online mode, and there is no local cache (.ost)
Support for indexing online delegate mailboxes
Support for client-to-client remote query to shared indexed locations (ie you can search other PCs running Windows Search 4.0)
Improved indexing performance
Faster previewer updates for Windows XP
Per-user Group Policy settings
Windows software updates for Watson errors
Support for the following new enterprise Group Policy objects:

While this is definitely an update aimed at the enterprise market, most probably removing some disincentives for adoption of Windows Vista too, there are some significant performance benefits to be had for consumers as well.

Installation on Vista took me just a few minutes, and after a reboot the first thing you'll notice is that nothing has changed. No new icon in the system tray, no splash screen on startup, nadda. You'll know something is different when you start a search from the taskbar, as results load significantly quicker. ~~Unfortunately I'm unable to search for music files at the moment, but hey that's why the beta tag is on.~~ If you have your personal folders (Documents/Music etc) mapped to another location, you’ll need to manually add it to the indexer via the Control Panel (thanks Brandon).

This technology is something we've spoken about before over a year ago when Steve Ballmer demoed it as Windows Live Search Center. (Quick recap, it was also called OneView and Casino). As Microsoft PR tell MJF, Windows Search 4 provides an "update to Windows search functionality, while Casino was a research project." It just happened to be a research project demoed at the Worldwide Partner Conference.

Download Windows Search 4.0 Preview

Windows Search Preview "indefinitely postponed"

Chris — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 02:40:00 GMT

The word is that the Windows Live "desktop search" project has been shelved, as a result of the recent reorg. In Sinofsky's vision of "Live 2.0" (did I just say that?), the 6 groups rule all, giving consolidation into a Windows Live suite. The screenshot below is about as much as we will be seeing anytime soon of the ill-fated "Casino".

Live Drive is still yet to be seen, Nemo the Media Center add-on is on hold. While thankfully someone has seen sense to stop churning out Live-branded products everywhere we look, these non-core products are the ones that can differentiate Windows Live from Google and Yahoo. Hopefully we'll see them or their technology in other products in the near future.

Windows Search Preview homepage

Has "Live" gone out of fashion?

Chris — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 06:10:00 GMT

First it was Warhol becoming MSN Soapbox. Next up is Search Center, the latest program which surprisingly will be losing the "Live" prefix that is being given to nearly everything else coming out of Redmond this year. For now it is looking to be called Windows Search Preview, a name that is supported by a recent Newgroup post over at MSDN by a Microsoft employee.

In case you've forgotten the history of this product, here's a quick recap:

Originally codenamed Casino and internally called OneView
Announced by Bill Gates as just Windows Live Search
Named as Windows Live Search Center by Steve Ballmer
Now being called Windows Search Preview

Now you see why the blog was named "Find My Stuff".

Back in July, the press release said that this product would be "coming soon" and as yet we are still to see an external beta program. While we're waiting for Windows Search Preview, maybe someone can suggest that the naming team leave this product alone now and start looking at some of the products already out there - Windows Live Local seems to be a favorite.