help! anybody with WDS and networks?

Post by **nikos** » 2013 Jan 24, 16:03

windows search v4 supposedly works over networks too. Do you have a network setup with WDS 4 installed? Can you try something for me? This is for the upcoming version 2.3, which I'm working on as we speak

fgagnon · Post by **fgagnon** » 2013 Jan 24, 23:04

I have a small home network: just a few w7 boxes and an old XP desktop. I have USB-connected storage on most of them, some of which is 'shared', but no NAS devices.
The search in w7 is built-in (no version number) and , I believe, supercedes WDS 4.0
While I can get it to search the networked boxes, I have not found an option to index them.

And ... I could install WDS 4.0 on the XP for testing.
(As I'm getting ready to decommission that box, I won't be caring much about added cr@p.)

Post by **nikos** » 2013 Jan 25, 08:56

the idea is that as long as each PC has its local index, you can access it from a different PC. If you have a couple of win7 boxes with default search settings, then that's all I need

fgagnon · Post by **fgagnon** » 2013 Jan 25, 15:13

OK, can do.

So PM me or post the link(s) to the stuff you want me to try along with the related instructions.

Thracx · Post by **Thracx** » 2013 Feb 25, 15:43

nikos wrote:the idea is that as long as each PC has its local index, you can access it from a different PC. If you have a couple of win7 boxes with default search settings, then that's all I need

I have 4+ Win7x64SP1 machines on my home subnet. I don't recall customizing the Windows Search on any of these machines. Let me know if you still need some testing.

Post by **nikos** » 2013 Feb 26, 06:10

just try the latest beta doing searches in some of your network folders and see if it uses WDS successfully. To determine whether WDS was used, use TOOLS > SEARCH STATUS menu command and see if a search query was used. Another simple check is to see if this "click for robust search" button is shown at the bottom of the search results in the scrap window. But please test that in a network folder that appears in the remote index. Most probably it will only work for shared folders

Thracx · Post by **Thracx** » 2013 Feb 27, 05:10

nikos wrote:...To determine whether WDS was used, use TOOLS > SEARCH STATUS menu command and see if a search query was used...

Seems to work:

Search within: ::{F02C1A0D-BE21-4350-88B0-7367FC96EF3C}\\\COMPNAME\Users\USERNAME
Parameters: Subfolders, Depth first
FILTER DETAILS
Matching items: Folders, Files
Name wildcard: *.doc
----------------
FOLDERS SEARCHED
----------------
SQL QUERY
SELECT Path FROM COMPNAME.SystemIndex WHERE ((System.Filename LIKE '%.doc')) AND SCOPE='file://COMPNAME/Users/USERNAME'
0 folder(s) searched in total

Search complete

Curiously, it says '0 folder(s) searched in total', but it did search many subfolders and found many files. Another search I ran listed 215 folders searched, although there were 220 'lines' of folders listed.

Also, I panicked briefly - my beloved Backspace and other keyboard commands weren't working in the beta! I was horrified. Mortified. Then later I noticed that while I had the 'Search Results' window opened, the actual search (a separate Window) was paused - I guess the search is sharing the GUI thread (Modal dialogs should die!). Closing the Search Results window resumed the search, and closing the search window resumed normal shortcut behavior in the main X² Window. Whew, I'm happy again :=) Still, seems strange, as I'd think if I were to be able to use the other window (i.e. non-modal) then I wouldn't think that most things work (toolBar buttons, menus, etc) but keyboard commands (Backspace, Alt+Left, etc) don't. I was able to reproduce this behavior in v2.2.0.1x64 (just leave the 'search' dialog open, which is modal to the Scrap pane but not to the main window).

Anecdotally, browsing network shares seems a lot faster. If this is fact and not just feeling, then much thanks to Nikos!

Post by **nikos** » 2013 Feb 27, 05:56

so it works, great!