What it means if you install Windows Search 4 and get "update does not apply"
Note: This blog post is from 2008. Some content may be outdated--though not necessarily. Same with links and subsequent comments from myself or others. Corrections are welcome, in the comments. And I may revise the content as necessary.I saw a recommendation on a favored site of mine to consider updating Vista SP1 to use Windows Search 4. I got it from the MS site for Search 4 and tried to install it, but it failed getting "update does not apply". I dug around and could find no apparent answer, but figured it out. Turns out it was installed as part of a Windows update just the other day.
I recall now seeing it mentioned in the update (I always have Windows tell me what updates it has before installing them), but just had forgotten it. Anyway, the MakeUseof entry says that indexing should be a lot faster. That's good to hear. I had disabled the search for a while when I noticed it stealing a lot of resources (and yes, I know of Google Desktop and others, and they all can have that problem).
Anyway, just wanted to post this here in case others search for a solution to this problem. If you're getting this error, check if you already have it installed (either using "control panel>windows update>view update history" or "control panel>programs and features>view installed updates" and sort it by name to find if Windows Search 4.0 is listed and when it was installed (right-most column).
One other thing about the pain of any service running at startup, I've noticed something new in Vista (and 2008): there's now has an option for services allowing you to have them start as "automatic (delayed)" instead of the normal "automatic" (in the properties for the service). I've long wished for that (since I don't need CF started up immediately on my dev box, but I would like it running eventually without me manually starting it).
Anyway, I wonder if it could help alleviate the pain you noticed with the search indexer, that is, if it's ok for the search tool to not be running while potential updates are being made to files it would index. Maybe it "catches" up once it gets started. I just don't know.
I'll have more to say about the delayed start feature in a separate entry.