Alternative to WDS?-Collection of common programming errors

10 years ago
admin
5 minutes

Hello,

We are a Microsoft Partner and have a long-standing application that heavily relies on file searches.  We are currently attempting to update this app for Windows Vista and Office 2007.  In previous versions of our app, we used the Office FileSearch object whenever we needed to search for specific files based on text within the files.  Upon beginning development of the updated version, we discovered that the FileSearch object has been “hidden” in Office 2007 and can no longer be used in VBA or Office automation to do text searches.  We have started to develop a solution that uses WDS, but we have a major concern:  our application is CPU-intensive and runs on the PC at all times, doing intense file I/O activity.  It seems that WDS will only index when the CPU is in a low state of activity.  That will never happen on the PC on which our app is running — so I can only assume that the index will always be woefully incomplete, and our searches will consequently be inaccurate.

Are my assumptions correct?  Or is there a way to use WDS successfully with such an application?  If not, what are our alternatives?

Thanks,

Marcia

  1. You can disable the backoff feature by setting the following registry DWORD value to 1:

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows Search\Gathering Manager\DisableBackoff

  2. How will that affect performance (of the PC overall, of our app, and of WDS)?  Won’t everything slow down as a result?

  3. During intial indexing it may slow down the computer noticeably. But there’s isn’t really another option – you said that the computer is constantly using CPU. We normally want to make sure the indexer stays out of the user’s way, so we wouldn’t index during a time of high CPU utilization. If you want to index anyway you can set the registry value I mentioned. I would give it a try without the change and see whether the constant CPU utilization is too high for indexing to happen. You never know until you try. But with all that said, even if you do turn off the backoff feature you probably will only see noticeable slowdowns during initial indexing. Once the indexer is done crawling all data sources the first time, keeping it up to date generally doesn’t use more than negligible amounts of CPU at a time and I doubt you would notice it.

  4. OK, thanks, Ari.  We will try it both ways and see how it goes.

    Thank you so much for your help!

    Marcia

  5. Ari,

    I just tried to change the registry key value for DisableBackoff and received the following message:

    Cannot Edit DisableBackoff:  Error writing the value’s new contents.

    I am using Regedit to make this change under Administrator privileges.  Is there another method I should be using to edit this key?

    Thanks,

    Marcia

  6. Are you running regedit as administrator? You have to right-click on it and select “Run as Admininstrator”

  7. Yes, I did select “Run As Administrator”, and it is still giving me that error.

  8. In regedit, you need to take ownership of the key, then enable writing to this value. This is found under the “Permissions…” context menu for the reg key.

  9. Eric,

    I right-clicked on the Gathering Manager key in regedit (running under Administrator privileges), selected “Permissions”, and changed the permissions for Administrators to “Full Control”.  When I hit Apply, I get this error:

    Unable to save permission changes on Gathering Manager. Access is denied.

    I tried changing the scope to “Subkeys only”, but received the same error.

    How can I get permissions to change this key?

    Thanks,

    Marcia

  10. You need to take ownership of the key. On the Permissions screen, click the Advanced button, then the Owners tab. Change the owner of the key to Administrators (You’ll obviously need to be logged on as an administrator to do this). Now you should be able to change the permissions on the key.

  11. Eric,

    Thanks for explaining that.  I had misunderstood the first time.

    I have done as you instructed and was able to change the DisableBackoff key.

    Thanks!

    Marcia

  12. Thanks so much, the Backoff “feature” was annoying as ____!!  When I tell my computer to do something (reindex) by God I want it done NOW, not when Windows decides it’s convenient for me.

  13. You can disable the backoff feature by setting the following registry DWORD value to 1:

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows Search\Gathering Manager\DisableBackoff

    On my machine the DWORD value is already set to Hex 1, and the indexing is still crawling at a snail’s pase.  Any alternatives?  I need search very badly for my work.ThanksBerj

  14. I have the same problem even though my Backoff DWORD value was always “Hex 1”.  It seems this problem is pervasive and Microsoft has done nothing about it since early 2007!!!  Like albatrozz I want indexing done NOW not in 3 days.Any alternative programs to WDS 4.0?  I need searching real bad, and WDS is hindering my work.ThanksBerj

  15. I have just solved my indexing problems by using http://www.ramdisk.tk/  I created a 2GB ramdisk and moved my search index to the ram drive  http://mintywhite.com/vista/vmaintenance/performance-boost-move-search-index-to-another-physical-drive/  

    It is important to ensure the ramdisk is NTFS,

    secondly you need to set up the permissions for the ramdisk to be identical to the default location C:\ProgramData\Microsoft 

    Thirdly  make sure that the ramdisk is NOT using compression.

    I found that the indexing zips along like a cat on fire-cracker night!

    The ramdisk software even saves between boots…… Even if your computer crashes it is only an index and reloading the last index and continuing from there???  well who cares!

    Make sure you donate to www.ramdisk.tk  cause the software ROCKS!