Windows Search 4.0 Preview (KB940157)

WS4 lets you perform an instant search of your computer. WS4 helps you find and preview documents, e-mail messages, music files, photos, and other items on the computer.

Please refer to the Knowledge base article KB940157 for a full description of the technology.

So now that it’s (sort of) clear what Windows Search 4.0 is, here’s what’s new in the publicly downloadable build, according to Microsoft:

* Most of the bugs affecting Windows Vista users that were reported by private testers have been fixed
* Performance improvements have been made. Even in this “preview version,” Windows Search 4.0 query times are 33 percent faster than search queries in Vista, according to the Softies.
* Improvements to Remote Index Discovery is now enabling PC-to-PC search to work on all supported versions of Windows
* Rollback Recovery has been added, allowing the search index to roll back to the last known good state; indexes are not rebuilt from scratch if errors occur.

Note: The WS4 installation process automatically upgrades previous versions of Windows Search technologies.

Download:
Windows Search 4.0 Preview for Windows Vista x86 | x64 Edition