An unofficial blog that watches Google's attempts to move your operating system online since 2005. Not affiliated with Google.

Send your tips to gostips@gmail.com.

September 15, 2008

Better Performance in Google Desktop 5.8

Google Desktop announces that the latest release focuses on performance and that's a great thing, considering that many users call Google Desktop a memory hog.

Google Desktop 5.8 improves the memory usage during startup, has a faster shutdown and detects the gadgets that slow down your computer. "To reduce memory usage, increase stability and reduce memory fragmentation, we reduced the number of different processes that Google Desktop runs, and we now recycle some of our processes frequently."

The blog post doesn't mention the biggest performance improvement: Google Desktop's main feature, indexing the files from your computer, is no longer enabled by default. In Windows Vista, Google uses the index created by Microsoft's desktop search service. If you want to enable Google Desktop's index, you need to select "Enable Enhanced Content Indexing" when you install the software or in the options page.


Enable additional features by using Google Desktop's index:

* Backup and view previous versions of your documents
* Search your web history, Gmail, and more
* View thumbnail previews of your images, videos, and web history

Google Desktop's wording makes you think that the "enhanced content indexing" is an advanced feature, when it should be the main feature of the software.

If you do enable desktop search, the initial indexing is much faster and the overall performance has been improved.

Posted by at
Labels:

19 comments:

  1. This might not be the best place to ask this question, but does Google Desktop's indexing service work even if I have the Vista index service turned off? Does Google Desktop's indexing service build on the Vista service or can it replace it?

    If so, does anyone know whether Google Desktop's indexing service is faster/more efficient than the Vista indexing service?

    Reply Delete

  2. googles doesnt replace vista. it simple gets set as default search engine.

    Reply Delete

  3. I was hoping the next Google Desktop release would tie iGoogle and Google Desktop closer together to make it useful again.

    Disappointing, feels like dying software.

    Reply Delete

  4. I want x64 version!

    Reply Delete

  5. I would like to have the possibility to index Outlook Attachments. Now I have to save them to my local files so they can be indexed.

    Reply Delete

  6. Google Desktop searches the file names of all email attachments. The contents of an attachment will only be indexed if you save it to your computer.

    Reply Delete

  7. It would have been better if google desktop might look like my iGoogle homepage(Or atleast an option to make so). That would combine unlimited features to Google desktop. And why are some of the gadgets only trial...While google is promoting cloud computing?

    Reply Delete

  8. 64-bit support by end of 2008, please.

    Reply Delete

  9. We want x64 support. We want CHANGE.

    Reply Delete

  10. I am having slow startup performance with Google Desktop 5.8 installed.

    Reply Delete

  11. I am also having startup performance with Google Desktop 5.8

    Reply Delete

  12. Yes I want X64 support as well. Did anyone try the "GoogleDesktopSetup.exe /force" option yet? Google says "there are some limitations". I'm just curious to hear what these limitations are.

    Reply Delete

  13. I've tried the "/force" option in x64 Vista...
    The limitation is the sidebar doesn't work 99.9% of the time.
    In fact, I only had it work once.

    The search still works though.. and that is awesome :)

    Reply Delete

  14. My first try at Google Desktop - VERY disappointing. Yes, it's superfast on my desktop. But it also slows down inter net search, by 10 or 20 seconds! This is ridiculous, and makes the whole setup stupid. And yes, disabled show desktop results in internet search. It doesn't SHOW them, but it obviously searches my whole computer before it shows internet results! Retarded.

    Reply Delete

  15. All i wanted to do was find an email that was deleted a few months back. The index process is flawed.I put in the comand to only index email and re-indexed. Nada. I'm going to try a uninstall reinstall since nothing else seems to be working...

    Reply Delete

  16. Testing Google Desktop - VERY disappointing, the settings are basic, very poor settings, the same as their elemental browser chrome.
    I'am unable to get results, i want to index a few of folders but the software doesn't work as expected for me.

    Reply Delete

  17. You obviously don't know how to configure it. it's an amazing tool. I use it to search in 1000's of technical pdf's for keywords and have fast results. When I search the net it doesnt use my google desktop at all, so don't know what you're talking about.

    Reply Delete

  18. "Anonymous", posting above on October 19, 2010 4:50 AM, is "obviously" "an amazing tool".

    If the Google Desktop works well for some people on some machines, that doesn't mean that other users reporting problems should be insulted.

    Reply Delete

  19. The matter that you provide is worth our time and energy. mk802 iii review

    Reply Delete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.

[フレーム]

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)
 

AltStyle によって変換されたページ (->オリジナル) /