Windows Desktop Search

Vista search features has been one of the selling points. Well, what people might not know is that Win XP Pro also have a desktop search. You can actually download it from Microsoft here. However, it's works only for Win XP Pro SP2, Win 2003 Server, and the respective 64bit versions.

After installing it, you'll see the desktop search below. By default, Windows Desktop Search will not do any indexing if your computer is busy. To stop it from indexing, you can right click on the "Magnifying glass" in your tray and click on Snooze Indexing.

Do take note if you have enabled indexing. If your folders or files are not indexed enabled, the search will not be able to index it. To find out if it's indexed, do the following:

1. Go to the properties of the folder or file you wish to index (Right-click on it and choose Properties)
2. Under the general tab, click on Advanced
3. Ensure that you have checked the checkbox "For fast searching, allow Indexing Service to index this folder/file"
   

There are many other advanced features. Just play around with it... However, since it's frequently indexing, I'm not sure if it's ideal for laptop use. It might drain your battery.

Updates:

• I recommend at least 512MB of RAM to run this. I've un-installed mine because I only have 256MB and my system slowed down by quite a bit.