Microsoft Desktop Search does not search Outlook or C: drive

Hi,
My new employer wants to only use microsoft products. Hence, I am interested
in the msft equivalent of google desktop.

I downloaded version 3.01 of windows desktop search (wds) for xp pro os (32
bit version), but I can't seem to get it to work.

My chief puzzlement is with outlook. When I look under the Desktop Seach
Options, it appears to default to search only outlook express and there is no
option for indexing regular outlook. I use outlook 2003 sp2. How can I get
MDS to search my email? Should I have search index pst files?

I also noticed that MDS defaults to search not the entire hard drive but
only certain folders (I think documents and settings or my documents -- I
forget which becasue I changed the setting). I changed this to index my
entire C: drive, but it still does not appear to find all files. A search for
"xls" returned only 2 spreadsheets, when I have dozens.

All help appreciated. Please feel free to suggest an alternaitive to MDS as
well, if this tool is not up to snuff. Basically I just want a fast desktop
search tool, for email and files.
thanks,
Craig

If you are using an Exchange server, Outlook messages/data resides on
the server. Windows comes with a file finder, and Outlook has one too.

Craig wrote:

> Hi,
> My new employer wants to only use microsoft products. Hence, I am interested
> in the msft equivalent of google desktop.
>
> I downloaded version 3.01 of windows desktop search (wds) for xp pro os (32
> bit version), but I can't seem to get it to work.
>
> My chief puzzlement is with outlook. When I look under the Desktop Seach
> Options, it appears to default to search only outlook express and there is no
> option for indexing regular outlook. I use outlook 2003 sp2. How can I get
> MDS to search my email? Should I have search index pst files?
>
> I also noticed that MDS defaults to search not the entire hard drive but
> only certain folders (I think documents and settings or my documents -- I
> forget which becasue I changed the setting). I changed this to index my
> entire C: drive, but it still does not appear to find all files. A search for
> "xls" returned only 2 spreadsheets, when I have dozens.
>
> All help appreciated. Please feel free to suggest an alternaitive to MDS as
> well, if this tool is not up to snuff. Basically I just want a fast desktop
> search tool, for email and files.
> thanks,
> Craig

Hi Bob,
This does not help. Yes, outlook and windows both have finders, and both are
slow and serve a different purpose than desktop search.

Again, I am interested in making Windows Desktop Search (or a similar
solution, preferable designed by microsoft, but with google desktop
search-like capabilities), work for searching emails and files.
thank you,
Craig

"Bob I" wrote:

> If you are using an Exchange server, Outlook messages/data resides on
> the server. Windows comes with a file finder, and Outlook has one too.
>
> Craig wrote:
>
> > Hi,
> > My new employer wants to only use microsoft products. Hence, I am interested
> > in the msft equivalent of google desktop.
> >
> > I downloaded version 3.01 of windows desktop search (wds) for xp pro os (32
> > bit version), but I can't seem to get it to work.
> >
> > My chief puzzlement is with outlook. When I look under the Desktop Seach
> > Options, it appears to default to search only outlook express and there is no
> > option for indexing regular outlook. I use outlook 2003 sp2. How can I get
> > MDS to search my email? Should I have search index pst files?
> >
> > I also noticed that MDS defaults to search not the entire hard drive but
> > only certain folders (I think documents and settings or my documents -- I
> > forget which becasue I changed the setting). I changed this to index my
> > entire C: drive, but it still does not appear to find all files. A search for
> > "xls" returned only 2 spreadsheets, when I have dozens.
> >
> > All help appreciated. Please feel free to suggest an alternaitive to MDS as
> > well, if this tool is not up to snuff. Basically I just want a fast desktop
> > search tool, for email and files.
> > thanks,
> > Craig
>
>