New WDS Add-ins! (for XP and Vista!)
Today we released updated Add-ins for Windows Desktop Search. Most notable among the changes is that they now support Windows Vista. This includes the UNC Protocol Handler which allows you to index remote network shares (without using Offline Files).
Add-in for Files on Microsoft Networks (UNC and mapped drives)
21 Comments
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Hi Brandon,
Do these add-ons and in paritcular the File on Micorosft Networks support X64? If not is support planned?
Cheers
Janson
Hi
What happens when an item is purged from the IE cache, does the search index info for this item also get purged from the search index or is it kept?
In other words does the search index only contain references to web pages that are still in the cache or does it contain references to all web pages ever visted?
Cheers
Janson – I believe the IE History add-in is the only one that works on x64 currently. I’m not sure the plans for the others but when everyone is back from their holiday breaks I’ll find out what I can.
Sean – I’m also not exactly sure about that one, I only just recently installed that add-in myself and haven’t had time to look into how it works. You could try asking around at the WDS forum on MSDN (I suppose I should really add a link to that somewhere on my page). I’ll try to get more details about it up after the holidays.
Thanks, I’ll also post a query to the WDS Forum. Basically wondering whether I can replace my personal IE history component that I created for the original MSN Desktop Search.
http://www.codeproject.com/internet/MSNDesktopSearchWebCache.asp
Cheers
Thanks Brandon – much appreciated. I’m sure there are reasons for it, but lack of x64 support for this is a big show stopper for how I would like to deploy WDS. To deploy in Terminal Server which we will likely go x64 due to the increased user density per server, and not having the UNC add-in available means essentially that WDS loses a huge amount of its appeal. (You can’t go saying to a user you can search Outlook and any local data but not that stored on a network drive). Is there a way I can find out how to become and early adopter for WDS 4?
Thanks for your informative posts this year and happy holidays!
Hi,
I’ve been reading through the blog (nice stuff by the way) and I’m having trouble using WDS3.0 It doesn’t seem to want to index my offline files. I have two sets of offline files that I use – the My Documents folder (redirected to our server via UNC path/Group Policy), and some of my O: drive which is a mapped share.
I installed WDS 3.0 release, and the UNC addon you referenced, I have the O: mapped there, and I have my documents selected in the WDS indexer options, but nothing from those redirected areas ever comes up. Am I missing something? Maybe a registry setting needs to be changed? I used the WDS beta releases which did not enable offline files indexing – could some registry entry be stale?
Best Regards!
Brandon
Does desktop search work wiht offline files? My company is using offline files and I have not ideas where teh My Documents is stored on the c:\ so I have no way of indexing them so desktop search finds them.
What can one do in this situation to get desktop search to index my documents?
Thanks
Jay
2 Questions, if I may:
1. Which version of WDS should I be using? The 2.6 something version or the 3.0? I am using it on a corporate laptop, although not connected to our domain and so on.
2. With the Notus Notes add-in, it seems to have issues when I am running Notes and it tries to index or if I am indexing and I try to start Notes the indexer has my ID file locked and it crashes Notes. Any thoughts on that?
Thanks for any feedback.
Hello Brandon,
any news of UNC/Fat Addon for x64?
Thanks in advance
Hi Brandon,
Does the UNC/mapped drive Add-in for version 3.0 address the file sharing issue
that was a problem for version 2.6? The problem was outlined in a message entitled,
“Multiple WDS Indexers pointing at a network share causes file sharing violations”.
One of your notes from 22-AUG reads,”WDS 3.0 and Vista have undergone huge amounts
of testing around file locking. I’ll check with them, but I’m certain that the team
testing the UNC/FAT protocol handler are considering the scenario you mentioned.”
Just wondered if anyone had tested the scenario? Perhaps I have missed a post
somewhere.
Appreciate any feedback
Hello Brandon,
I was wondering if the following is even possible.
I have a databaseserver “verity autonomy” on one side and on the other side I have a WDS user. There connected through internet with one and
other. What I would like to now if it’s possible to make an index on te end user side without retrieving the terabyts of information
on the server side.
kinda like a remote client-server file indexer only with WDS
kind regards Bastiaan Bos
Hello Brandon
Is it possible to use GPO and policies to configure the wanted UNC path? Or how do you manage the configuration?
Thanks
hi,
I installed lotus notes add in for Windows desktop search but it is no indexing the mails.
Hi,
started playing with WDS 3 on Windows Vista and the Notes add-in. After a long time of indexing it is finding a lot. However it is not possible to open the search results form Lotus Notes. I always get the prompt:
“This database is currently being used by someone else (remark: of course that’s myself running notes). In order to share a Notes database, all users must use a Domino Server instead of a File Server”.
But to search, you need to work with the Notes nsf files on local and not on the server!
Hint, G… desktop search is able to open the messages locally.
Any hint?
Is there an add-in that will search the Windows Live Messenger history? Usually located here: C:\Users\username\Documents\My Received Files\windowsliveidxxxx\History
Thanks.
Hello, what is the state of the Add-in for Files on Microsoft Networks running on Vista x64?
I’ve installed it on my Vista x64 system and the installation seemed to go successfully. However, no UI for the addin appears in the Advanced Options dialog and the services stops immediately if it is started.
Are there any updates on this?
And does the ‘Add-in for Internet Explorer history’ work on x64? It seems to install and appears in the ‘Index these locations’ list as “iehistory://” but I don’t seem to be able to find any contents that should be cached.
Assuming it is working, how does one explicitly search this? Will “store:iehistory” work?
An update to my previous comment on the ‘Add-in for Internet Explorer history’.
Yes, version 1.0.1.0 does work in fully-patched-to-date Vista x64 but the installer seems to miss off a critical registry entry.
I added the following and the addin began working. I was able to see results that it provided in both the Start Menu search facility and by using the “store:iehistory” syntax.
–
----------------------------------------Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows Search\ProtocolHandlers]
"IEHistory"="IEHistoryPH.IEHistoryHandler.1"
-—————————————-
I was inspired to try adding this value to this location by the docs at http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa965721.aspx.
Hope that helps someone else.
Hi, I have an issue with the UNC Path add-in running on Vista: while it does index my UNC paths properly at first, the indexes apparently NEVER get updated. I add files, remove files, etc… leave the PC running for a long time (24 hours) without letting it go to standby, but the index doesn’t get updated for the UNC paths (e.g. a Maxtor Shared Storage II devices). The index does get updated for local files. The files on the Maxtor can be read to without a problem (full access to everyone on the device: no usernames & passwords needed). Any idea what’s wrong ? Could I install the older WDS 3.01 on Vista instead of using the shipping version that’s built in ?
Biggest problem with windows desktop search, is that if you leave it indexing a massive network file system for a few days, when that file system is unreachable Windows desktop search immediately purges all data from the index!!!! When the drive is back it starts again from scratch!!! An absolute joke and exactly the kind of ill-executed rubbish programming you would expect from this company.
I’m curious if there’s a way to configure WDS so that Word docs always appear first in the Deskbar. I find that often, a word doc does not appear at all in the popup list for the deskbar unless I also type “ext:doc”. 95% of the time, I’m looking for a Word doc, so I always have to type the “ext:doc”. Picky, I know, but I’m always looking for ways to reduce keystrokes.
Thanks for reading this!!