Problem Indexing E-mails with WDS 3.0 Beta 2
I have upgraded WDS to Product Version 6.0.5486.108 {3.0 Beta 2 for Windows XP (KB917013)}. It seems to be indexing my files and running well butnone of my e-mails are included. I have Outlook 2003 (11.8010.8036) SP2. As an experiment I have installed Google Desktop Search. It has no problem picking up all the e-mail messages on my HDD in the *.pst files. WDS does not index them at all. Just to give you an idea (of the magnitude of the problem) -- Google Desktop Search identifies more than 100,000 files on my HDD when indexing is complete; WDS only finds ~ 26,000! The difference is the missing e-mails. What is the 'trick'? Just to add to my confusion Windows Desktop Search is not listed when I open Settings/Control Panel/Add or Remove Programs. And (obviously) the appropriate $NtUninstallKB****$ Folder does not exist in my root directory so it is very hard (a.k.a. impossible) to uninstall the program. Since the main function of WDS (for me) is to rapidly access e-mails I am really stuck. Please provide help if you can.
[1195 byte] By [
djbjmb] at [2007-12-24]
I posted about the same issue with 2.6 a few days ago, but so far have had no response. While researching the problem I came across a large number of relevant posts from others who were experiencing it; it seems surprising that no-one from Microsoft has responded to such a pervasive problem.
If emails including the attachments need to be indexed (and any other files) I can highly recommend Copernic desktop search. Seems like a lot of people have experienced that WDS only indexes a small fraction of large email repositries.
The only little issue with Copernic is when you use it with Outlook and an Exchange server. In order to have Outlook start up correctly with the detection of the online or offline connection state to the exchange server, it is required that Copernic is not running. This has to do with MAPI. So Copernic should not be running when you start or stop Outlook in case you like to choose the connection state to an exchange server. Because of this liitle issue I tried WDS and removed it again after a couple of days due to the email indexing problem.
The troubleshooting guide is not helpful in this case. I have uninstalled and reinstalled WDS 2.6.x and 3.0 several times. Both versions consistently fail to index my PST files, with the exception of the one loaded as "Personal Folders". That one is indexed. I make it a habit to move prior year inbox and sent items into a PST for each year, and "mount" the most recent couple of years in Outlook.
I have left Outlook open with PST's open all night to allow indexing to complete with identical results. Only the emails in my mailbox, running in Exchange cached mode, and the current "Personal Folders" PST are indexed. I can confirm what everyone else is reporting here - Copernic gets them all. I would like to resolve the perceived faster speed of WDS over Copernic - but I suspect that it is simply a case of Copernic handling significantly more items - WDS appears to be faster because it's not doing as much work.
