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Windows Desktop Search slowing everything down

Question asked by Matt Conlin on Dec 10, 2007
Latest reply on Feb 8, 2008 by Larry Kutcher

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The Windows Desktop Search that is included in the 2008 installation is seriously slowing down the computer. It takes up 50% or more of the CPU all the time, even with no other programs running. Solidworks is severely affected by this and barely creeps along.

Has anyone else had this problem? I have done some research and have found others (non SW users) that have this problem. I have found that if you go to Start, Run, and type in "services.msc" you can shut down the Windows Search process, but it keeps starting back up again. There are three different processes I have found that take up too much memory. "Searchfilterhost.exe" and "Searchprotocolhost.exe" and "Searchindexer.exe" all together take up more than 50% of the CPU power, not leaving enough left over to properly run solidworks. Using the Task Manager, you can shut these processes down, but they will start up again.

Does anyone know of a way to get rid of these?

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Anna Wood Dec 10, 2007 5:35 PM
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Uninstall Windows Desktop Search from your system.....

Cheers,
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Charles Culp Dec 10, 2007 5:37 PM
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Matt,

right click on the magnifier icon in your system tray, select "indexing status". There will be a drop-down box where you can select how long to "snooze indexing". I suggest selecting 8 hours.

Every morning when I come in to work I right click on the magnifier, and then the first option is "snooze indexing 8 hours". I click that, and it won't index while I'm at work, only while I'm off doing better things.

*Edit: I will also add, if you right click, and go to Desktop Search Options... the first thing that will pop up is the indexing options. Uncheck the one that says "Automatically run ..." And you will never see it index again. Only do this if you don't want it to index. As Anna mentions in the previous post, it is not vital for core software functionality, so just remove it if you don't like it. I, however, like it and use it multiple times a day.
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Matt Conlin @ Anna Wood on Dec 10, 2007 5:45 PM
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Well, it seems like that would be the easy thing to do. For some reason my computer thinks this program is already uninstalled.
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Matt Conlin @ Charles Culp on Dec 10, 2007 5:49 PM
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Charles Culp wrote:

Matt,

right click on the magnifier icon in your system tray, select "indexing status". There will be a drop-down box where you can select how long to "snooze indexing". I suggest selecting 8 hours.

Every morning when I come in to work I right click on the magnifier, and then the first option is "snooze indexing 8 hours". I click that, and it won't index while I'm at work, only while I'm off doing better things.

*Edit: I will also add, if you right click, and go to Desktop Search Options... the first thing that will pop up is the indexing options. Uncheck the one that says "Automatically run ..." And you will never see it index again. Only do this if you don't want it to index. As Anna mentions in the previous post, it is not vital for core software functionality, so just remove it if you don't like it. I, however, like it and use it multiple times a day.

I've tried to snooze the indexing. I've also unchecked the automatic box, and there is still those three processes taking up my memory. Maybe it's time to reformat the harddrive.

Thanks for all the suggestions, I'll keep trying to figure it out.
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Scott Wertel @ Matt Conlin on Dec 10, 2007 6:28 PM
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I uninstalled Windows Desktop Search a long time ago because of this.

Since I don't have it installed, I can only guide you into the right area.

Bring up your adminstrator panel / Computer Management and go to Services.
(Start -> Programs -> Administrative Tools -> Services)

Is there a Windows Desktop Search service?

If there is you "Startup Type" is probably set to Automatic. Set it to manual if you think you want to use it. Otherwise, set it to Disable. That should keep it and any process related to it from starting (since you can't uninstall it).
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Matt Conlin @ Scott Wertel on Dec 10, 2007 9:35 PM
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Ok, I've set it to start manually, only when I want it to. Hopefully this will speed things up.

Thanks.
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John Lhuillier Dec 10, 2007 10:32 PM
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Also double check the settings in Solidworks under Tools>Options>Search and set that to index only when idle and also check that the dissection is turned off or the time is set to when you're not there. Like others that's the first thing I uninstall if it gets installed accidently or during an update.
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Mike Sveda @ John Lhuillier on Dec 11, 2007 12:59 PM
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I am uninstalling it at our company. It is a big stinker
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Matt Conlin @ Mike Sveda on Dec 11, 2007 2:40 PM
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I tried all your suggestions yesterday. It still slows everything down too much.

It will be uninstalled today.

Thanks.
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Jason Capriotti @ Matt Conlin on Dec 11, 2007 2:48 PM
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I've uninstalled it as well after testing it in the 2007 beta and again in the 2008 beta. It's a memory hog and our large assemblies need all the memory they can get. Plus its slows the PC down as we already have enough junk on the PCs that IT put there that does that.

If it worked better it would be good to have. But as it is, the search is good for marketing but bad for engineering.
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Charles Culp @ Matt Conlin on Dec 11, 2007 3:04 PM
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One thing I thought of today would be to set the priority (in task manager) to low. Then other processes would take priority every time. I have not tested this hypothesis.
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Andy Sanders @ Charles Culp on Dec 11, 2007 4:24 PM
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I hate what it does to Solidworks speed, but I LOVE what it does for indexing my Outlook emails.

I don't know how many times it has saved my butt finding a tidbit of info buried in a file somewhere in an email or document.

For that reason alone, I am using it.
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Neal Rusy @ Charles Culp on Dec 11, 2007 4:40 PM
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When it works it is a nice tool to have. I used it quite a bit and that is past tense when upgrading to 2008 I lost the ability to have it go out to a network folder and index it. As for a it being a Process hog I would agree with Charles
and snooze it, there also is a setting that it will pause itself while you are using your computer. Since 2008 I've uninstalled it and reinstalled the previous version of WDS I know alot of people have been complaining about it since there has been known isues with it! Again hat's off to SolidWorks you've really got a jewel here!
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John Burrill @ Andy Sanders on Dec 11, 2007 10:39 PM
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My own experience echoes Andy's.
You know, if you've got PDMWorks Enterprise or SmarTeam and it's completely integrated, I can see you wondering why you need help finding something in a well-organized system.
Our filesystem resembles an ocean-going garbage barge, complete with scurying rats and hovering seaguls. trust me, when you deal with sixty engineers that can't name, store or copy a file according to any convention, having that indexer digging through them looking for relavant phrasing is a life-saver. My index is over 130,000 items.
I agree that it slows down solidworks and sometimes I sit there just killing those processes over and over out of spite, but the truth is. I'm adicted to the amazement and adulation I get when I give someone a search result in 10 seconds or less.
John
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Rodney Hall @ John Burrill on Dec 12, 2007 12:44 AM
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I use it daily to find those long lost files and have implemented it for all of our purchasing and engineering to find documents FAST! Note that the install version that Solidworks adds has to be uninstalled and you must download the latest version from Microsoft. Also, set it up to index only the directories you need and not "everything" on your PC or Network. Works great for me....
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Neal Rusy @ Rodney Hall on Dec 12, 2007 10:35 AM
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Rodney What version are you using? you've not had a problem indexing network folders? I'm having major problems with ours
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Mark Craig @ Neal Rusy on Dec 12, 2007 12:03 PM
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There is a patch for WDS version 3.01

http://www.microsoft.com/downl...e27283&displaylang=en

Get this, install, enjoy!

(send the bill for 3 days downtime to SW)
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Mark Olsen @ Mark Craig on Dec 12, 2007 12:27 PM
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In my opinion, this is a resource intensive patch for poor file management by the users. If you are disciplined in file naming, and locations, there is no need for this utility. If you aren't, then the search fails to find the file(s) anyway. I can't begin to tell you how many files are on our network named Part1.sldprt. You can search all day for that special widget, and if it's named Part1, along with hundreds of other files, good luck.

I'll stick to good old naming/filing conventions and leave the computer resources for actual engineering work.
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Charles Culp @ Mark Olsen on Dec 12, 2007 1:03 PM
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I often have to find files on the network that I didn't create, so I don't know where they are located. I actually use it just as much for non-SW files than for SW files. I am still using version 2.06.5, which works great with SW2007. I know that SW2008 works differently.

I don't know what "resources" it is using up for you all, but for me while I'm at work it uses -0- processor (except when I'm actively searching), and ~27MB ram. Out of my 2046MB of RAM that I have, that is 1.3%, so not exactly "bringing down my system". I guess if you want to have "maximum ram available", you can get that 27 MB back...
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Neal Rusy @ Charles Culp on Dec 12, 2007 1:13 PM
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searching the internet to try to solve my problems I came across a blog site that explains alot about the WDS and the processes it takes up

Website
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Jared Smith Dec 12, 2007 1:18 PM
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I never had this problem with the old 2.x version of WDS, but the 3.x version is terrible. The 3.x version also can't see some of the network directories that worked fine in 2.x (one of which has most of my SW files.)

Under XP64...WDS doesn't see network drives period.

Another good idea poorly implemented by Microsoft....big surprise.
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Mark Craig @ Jared Smith on Dec 12, 2007 1:43 PM
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quote "In my opinion, this is a resource intensive patch for poor file management by the users. "

The WDS patch enables Windows Desktop Search to search mapped network drives. These network drives couldn't be searched without it.

BTW This is - as far as I know - just a SWX2008 issue.
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Matt Conlin @ Mark Craig on Dec 12, 2007 2:50 PM
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I think that a search/indexer program would be useful. Our files here are pretty well organized, but there are a lot of them.

My system is running perfectly after I got Windows Desktop Search uninstalled. I'll wait a while till they come out with a useful update and then try it again.
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1-6TXHTM @ Matt Conlin on Dec 12, 2007 3:40 PM
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I had this issue with my machine as well when we upgraded and promptley uninstalled it. When I talked to my VAR he said that it should only bog your system down while it was indexing (which can take a long time to build espetially if it is indexing your whole system). He suggested that it could take up to 3 weeks or more to complete, especially if you shut the computer off at night and work on it all day.

Once it has indexed the entire system it only has to index files as they are created or moved (which you shouldn't notice on your performance).

I believe the reason that it is installed with SW2008 is that SW dissection uses this to dissect the files so that you can use certain features from other models on your computer (another new feature that I won't use because it doesn't dissect files in PDMWorks).

You should also look at your SW Task Scheduler (Start>SW2008>SW2008SP1.0>SW tools>SW Task Scheduler)
There is a menu on the left. Select Dissect Files and check the settings, mine is set to dissect files between 11:00 pm and 5:00am and you can set the locations for it to dissect. If this is running while you work it can also kill your system.

As far as desktop search I have re-installed it and minimized its search locations and now I don't notice a performance hit.

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong as I am going from second hand info but I hope this help.

Lorne
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Matt Conlin @ 1-6TXHTM on Dec 12, 2007 8:25 PM
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Lorne Henderson wrote:

I had this issue with my machine as well when we upgraded and promptley uninstalled it. When I talked to my VAR he said that it should only bog your system down while it was indexing (which can take a long time to build espetially if it is indexing your whole system). He suggested that it could take up to 3 weeks or more to complete, especially if you shut the computer off at night and work on it all day.

Once it has indexed the entire system it only has to index files as they are created or moved (which you shouldn't notice on your performance).

I believe the reason that it is installed with SW2008 is that SW dissection uses this to dissect the files so that you can use certain features from other models on your computer (another new feature that I won't use because it doesn't dissect files in PDMWorks).

You should also look at your SW Task Scheduler (Start>SW2008>SW2008SP1.0>SW tools>SW Task Scheduler)

There is a menu on the left. Select Dissect Files and check the settings, mine is set to dissect files between 11:00 pm and 5:00am and you can set the locations for it to dissect. If this is running while you work it can also kill your system.

As far as desktop search I have re-installed it and minimized its search locations and now I don't notice a performance hit.

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong as I am going from second hand info but I hope this help.

Lorne

That makes sense. I'm gonna look into that and see if it works.

Thanks.
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