Back at the start of June 2008, Microsoft introduced an upgrade for the search infrastructure of its Windows client and Server operating systems. In this manner, the default search infrastructure of Windows Vista SP1, Windows XP SP3, but also Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2003 evolved to Windows Search 4.0. One of the most relevant aspects of the evolution from Windows Desktop Search 3.01 to Windows Search 4.0 is a consistent increase in performance. 

According to Microsoft, Windows Vista Query Times are no less than 84% faster with WS 4.0 compared to WDS 3.01 on operating systems that were used for a period of time ahead of the test. On just booted machines, WS 4.0 still registered a superior performance, delivering results to queries up to 75% faster. The same was valid for Windows XP, although when Vista's precursor was taken into consideration, hot machines delivered just a 26% improvement and cold computers just 21%.

For the test, Microsoft used an Intel Core2 Duo CPU E6750 @ 2.66GHz, with 2 GB of RAM and performed queries for items out of a total of 24,230 files placed in 2,326 directories. Microsoft defined a Cold query as "the first query after start of search service" and the Hot query as "any query following the cold query."

"Here are some general tips, and as you can see some of the improvements are only seen in Windows Vista: initial index build requires time; expect to index 20-40 items per second; WS4 rearranges the property store indices supporting fast query; incremental Indexing; File System is scanned on startup; most changes handled through notifications; Smart Indexer Back-off; keyboard and mouse use; high CPU utilization; high I/O; low Pri I/O (Vista only) and Power Mgmt (Vista only)," revealed Microsoft technical specialist Matt Hester.

Windows Search 4.0 is available for download here.

The Multilingual User Interface Pack for Windows Search 4.0 can be downloaded from here.