In February Microsoft released Windows Desktop Search 3.01 for Windows XP SP2 which provides the same search capabilities as you know them from Windows Vista. The new Administration Guide describes how you can deploy and configure Windows Desktop Search (WDS) in a corporate environment. The document does not only apply to Windows XP/2003, but to Windows Vista as well. If you have Vista machines in your network, I highly recommend reading this documentation.

The first question is if you need desktop search at all? This certainly depends on several factors, like for example, if users still store files on their desktops. What I like about WDS is that it is nicely integrated with Outlook/Exchange and Sharepoint. I personally don’t search for files on my desktop, but I do often search for emails. WDS greatly improves search performance, it highlights hits and enables you to search in attachments.

The second question certainly is, does it make sense to deploy Microsoft’s latest desktop search tool to Windows XP now? If you plan to replace XP by Vista soon, then it probably isn’t advisable. If you use a former version of WDS in your network, it might make sense to update those machines because then you only have one version to maintain on your XP and Vista machines.

Even if you think that desktop search doesn’t play an important role in your organization, you should have a look at this Administration Guide. Vista already comes with WDS installed and users might change its default configuration in a way that could be problematic for your network. For instance, they could add network resources to the index which might affect network performance. The guide explains how you can prevent users from doing this or how you could restrict this feature.

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