How regain the original search functionality, i.e. how to get rid of Windows Desktop Search again?

I recently installed a program (OneNote - which I find quite nice and
useful BTW) that - when I tried to use its search funciton - popped up a
dialog telling me, that if I want to use that function I need to install
Windows Desktop Search. Unfortunately - stupid me - I clicked OK and the
thing went ahead and installed Windows Desktop Search. Boy, how I
regretted that decision (and judging from misc. news groups and other
entries on the net I am not alone)!

This Search thingy took completely over my system. It kept my system and
my HD busy all the time (and this is not a lame system, this is a
top-of-the-line Laptop: 200GB HD, 2 GB RAM, etc!). It was impossible to
continue working. Constantly the disk was working like mad and if one
checked, it was SearchIndexer and a two or three other Search<Something>
processes that kept the system busy. And it never ended doing so. I once
left it running over night expecting that it would have indexed my
system by next morning and that it would then behave better and not
block me all the time. No! It continued to hog my system. No idea, what
this darn thing kept doing!

So in the end I decided that this was enough and disabled the "Windows
Search" service (using msconfig.exe) Since then my system is usable
again, but when I need to search some file, I still get that Windows
Desktop Search window (instead of the old Search window) but when I
enter some name or string there, I am only told, that "Desktop Search
isn't running". So: I lost my search functionality completely!

Alas, I couldn't find that darn Search in the Program list nor under
Windows Components anywhere, neit. So, how can I safely uninstall this
Search thingy and regain my old search functionality?

Michael

Michael Moser wrote:
> I recently installed a program (OneNote - which I find quite nice
> and useful BTW) that - when I tried to use its search funciton -
> popped up a dialog telling me, that if I want to use that function
> I need to install Windows Desktop Search. Unfortunately - stupid me
> - I clicked OK and the thing went ahead and installed Windows
> Desktop Search. Boy, how I regretted that decision (and judging
> from misc. news groups and other entries on the net I am not alone)!
>
> This Search thingy took completely over my system. It kept my
> system and my HD busy all the time (and this is not a lame system,
> this is a top-of-the-line Laptop: 200GB HD, 2 GB RAM, etc!). It was
> impossible to continue working. Constantly the disk was working
> like mad and if one checked, it was SearchIndexer and a two or
> three other Search<Something> processes that kept the system busy.
> And it never ended doing so. I once left it running over night
> expecting that it would have indexed my system by next morning and
> that it would then behave better and not block me all the time. No!
> It continued to hog my system. No idea, what this darn thing kept
> doing!
> So in the end I decided that this was enough and disabled the
> "Windows Search" service (using msconfig.exe) Since then my system
> is usable again, but when I need to search some file, I still get
> that Windows Desktop Search window (instead of the old Search
> window) but when I enter some name or string there, I am only told,
> that "Desktop Search isn't running". So: I lost my search
> functionality completely!
> Alas, I couldn't find that darn Search in the Program list nor under
> Windows Components anywhere, neit. So, how can I safely uninstall
> this Search thingy and regain my old search functionality?

This?
http://www.lancelhoff.com/2008/04/13...esktop-search/

(Pretty sure you will need to enable it first. heh)

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

There is a Windows Desktop Search forum on MSDN which would be a better
place for your post. This newsgroup is for the Windows XP OS. (WDS isn't
part of the OS.)

http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/Sho...D=847&SiteID=1

---
Leonard Grey
Errare humanum est

Michael Moser wrote:
> I recently installed a program (OneNote - which I find quite nice and
> useful BTW) that - when I tried to use its search funciton - popped up a
> dialog telling me, that if I want to use that function I need to install
> Windows Desktop Search. Unfortunately - stupid me - I clicked OK and the
> thing went ahead and installed Windows Desktop Search. Boy, how I
> regretted that decision (and judging from misc. news groups and other
> entries on the net I am not alone)!
>
> This Search thingy took completely over my system. It kept my system and
> my HD busy all the time (and this is not a lame system, this is a
> top-of-the-line Laptop: 200GB HD, 2 GB RAM, etc!). It was impossible to
> continue working. Constantly the disk was working like mad and if one
> checked, it was SearchIndexer and a two or three other Search<Something>
> processes that kept the system busy. And it never ended doing so. I once
> left it running over night expecting that it would have indexed my
> system by next morning and that it would then behave better and not
> block me all the time. No! It continued to hog my system. No idea, what
> this darn thing kept doing!
>
> So in the end I decided that this was enough and disabled the "Windows
> Search" service (using msconfig.exe) Since then my system is usable
> again, but when I need to search some file, I still get that Windows
> Desktop Search window (instead of the old Search window) but when I
> enter some name or string there, I am only told, that "Desktop Search
> isn't running". So: I lost my search functionality completely!
>
> Alas, I couldn't find that darn Search in the Program list nor under
> Windows Components anywhere, neit. So, how can I safely uninstall this
> Search thingy and regain my old search functionality?
>
> Michael
>

Shenan Stanley wrote:
> Michael Moser wrote:
>> ...
>
> This?
> http://www.lancelhoff.com/2008/04/13...esktop-search/
>


Aahh - thanks god! <Relieved sigh!> Back to normal!
The "show updates" checkbox was the missing incantation. After that the
Desktop Search showed up and allows to uninstall it.

Michael