Since Windows Search 4.0 (WS4.0) was released to the web on June 3rd, we've seen a good number of downloads, and a number of positive responses from customers who started using it.  Users are telling us that they're seeing better performance and reliability of search after WS4.0 is installed.  As a result, we feel it's time to make WS4.0 available to the broader audience.

In late July WS4.0 will become available for installation off Windows Update. Customers using Windows XP will see WS4.0 available as an Optional update, meaning they can manually install it from update.microsoft.com.  Windows Vista customers will see the update as a recommended update. Depending on the Windows Update settings on your Windows Vista SP1 client, WS4.0 may be installed automatically, updating the search capability in Windows Vista SP1. 

Not everyone will get it on the same day; the release of Windows Search 4.0 will be very gradual.  While every user will be able to install the update off the Windows Update site interactively, the automatic update may not come to your machine for some time. The update will go to a small percentage of Windows users each day, the percentage increasing gradually. If you want to have the update installed sooner rather than later, you can do it by opening the Windows Update control panel and installing the update manually.

It should be noted that installation of WS4.0 requires a reboot, and after that, your data is indexed by the newly installed search engine. This is done due to the significant performance and reliability work that was done for WS4.0, which required changes to the structure of the search index. As we observed in our internal testing, the indexing process doesn't take too long and won't lock your PC: any action you take in the UI or application activity on your PC will make the indexing process back off and release most of computer's resources.

For those organizations that prefer to take control over the deployment of WS4.0, we provide a mechanism to block the automatic delivery of WS4.0 to Windows Vista SP1 computers in environments where the Automatic Updates feature is enabled: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/953959. However, an update management solution remains a recommended method of managing the schedule of updates. Visit Update Management Solutions for more information.

Later this year we are planning to make WS4.0 available for installations via WSUS. Keep an eye on the Microsoft Update Team Blog for more information.

Are you annoyed by the restart prompt which appears every time you update windows.

In order to configure no auto reboot settings for windows XP Professional and Home your windows must have service pack2 installed.

But the to remove auto reboot for windows XP home and Professional are different.

For Windows XP Professional

1. Open Start >> Run and type gpedit.msc (group policy editor) and press Enter (more…)

Tags: auto reboot, command, Computer, computer policy, configuration, group policy editor, Microsoft, regedit, restart, task manager, Windows, windows update, windows xp, windows xp home edition

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Windows Vista Service Pack 1 and Windows Server 2008 are not the only Microsoft products being released to manufacturing this week. Cecilia Cole, WSUS Program Manager, announced that WSUS 3.0 Service Pack 1 had also reached RTM, and was subsequently made available for download. But at the same time, the RTM stage of Windows Server Update Services 3.0 SP1 following in the heels of Windows Server 2008 is not coincidental. WSUS 3.0 SP1 is in fact designed to provide support for the Redmond company’s latest server operating system. (more…)

Although it is on the verge of releasing the first service pack for Windows Vista, Microsoft has not stopped hammering away at the operating system via Windows Update. The Redmond company is currently in a transition process, subtle as it might be. A migration from a strategy focused on delivering major updates for its software products to one centered on an incremental evolution. Although the service pack strategy has become a tradition for Microsoft, the future points to a shift toward Windows Update.

Concomitantly with the advent of Windows Vista, the Redmond company started downplaying the relevance of service pack releases and pointing to Windows Update. (more…)

Will the third and final service pack for Windows XP manage to breath new life into the operating system? Will users and original equipment manufacturers be able to apply enough pressure on Microsoft to keep Windows XP alive? There is even an online petition available to save Windows XP. Anything but to move to Windows Vista. Yes, by all means. Save Windows XP. But from what? Is XP even in need of saving?

Last I checked, Windows XP still accounts for the lion’s share of the operating system market. All other platforms, including Windows Vista, don’t even manage to come close to it. And growing on the operating system market means actually eroding XP’s audience, because there is little elbow room with this ubiquitous platform having dug its roots in deep starting back in 2001. According to Net Applications, XP is credited with 76.91%, while after almost a year since it hit the shelves, Vista has only gone as high as 10.48%. By comparison Mac OS X has a share of 7.31% and all the Linux distributions just 0.63%. (more…)

Surely it’s no news to you that we use Windows Update to continually deliver ongoing improvements to our customers so that Windows is always up-to-date.  Plus, doing so eliminates the need to wait for larger releases like service packs.  Some updates are released to the community for general feedback prior to delivery via Windows Update, as is the case today.  The Windows Serviceability Team today is rolling out another update on the Microsoft Download Center.  The update is categorized as a “preview release” and may be subject to change before it is released via Windows Update (we expect that to occur in January).
 
Today’s update preview release is geared toward improving reliability and performance in Windows Vista and we highly encourage you to install it.  It includes:

• Improvement of previous issues affecting going into or resuming from sleep/hibernate under some scenarios
• Update to address a previous issue with the disk spindown feature to improve battery life for portable systems
• Up to 15% improved performance of disk I/O (i.e., copying/moving/deleting large files)

I’m running this update on one of my systems — the one I’m using to draft this post, in fact.  I suggest you try it out and let us know how you fare.  You can find more information about today’s update preview release in this KB article.