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The Joel on Software Discussion Group (CLOSED)

After a not-insignificant amount of Googling, I was able to track down LookOut version 1.3.0.24057.  Is this the latest available version?

My version is 1.2.0.1924 When I check for updates it says none are available.

When you go to the home page it redirects you to Windows desktop search, which is what Lookout morphed into after MS bought it.

Microsoft recommends you upgrade to the highest version of desktop search, which is 3.01

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/desktopsearch/addresources/bizversions.mspx

By the way, is it worth my while upgrading from Lookout to Desktop Search and the Windows Live Toolbar?

And now I come across Joel's article! So if I install desktop search to search the desktop faster, do I have to uninstall Lookout; and if so, would it be better to keep Lookout and simply turn indexing on for the HD?

Does desktop search fix the downgrade of Windows XP search that if you looked for the occurence of a word in files, it would ignore unknown file types like .c and .h and .pas (which Win2000 and 98 would have found)?

Personally, after using LookOut for the afternoon, I find it much more valuable than the Windows Desktop Search.  I still don't understand where Joel is seeing a LookOut link available from Microsoft - I think that's gone now.

I can email you lookout if you want it?

Oh, thanks, I already have it, though.  I was just curious if a version later than the one I have (1.3.0.xxxxx) exists.

Apparently the 1.3.xxx versions were betas and unstable. A google search for the version you mentioned brings up pages talking about crashes and general flakiness.

Ah, that explains a lot.  It did crash on me once during the indexing phase.  I've just downloaded 1.28, so presumably that's a more official release.

Does anyone have a download link for lookout? I cant find one in google.

http://www.snapfiles.com/get/lookout.html

"By the way, is it worth my while upgrading from Lookout to Desktop Search and the Windows Live Toolbar?"  I like Lookout better  MS Desktop search likes it's resources and was not as snappy as Lookout.

N. Velope: "Does desktop search fix the downgrade of Windows XP search that if you looked for the occurence of a word in files, it would ignore unknown file types like .c and .h and .pas (which Win2000 and 98 would have found)?"

You can fix that yourself. Just add the additional extensions you want indexed.  Use Control Panel|Administrative Tools|Computer Management, drill down in the treeview on the left to Services and Applications|Indexing Service, and then click the Action|Help menu. The Microsoft Management Console Help file will open; expand the Indexing Service item in the treeview.

Expand the topic "Create and Use Catalogs|Configure a Catalog", and then click the topic "Index files with unknown extensions" for step-by-step instructions.

As regards the MS Windows Desktop Search - has anyone actually even gotten this software to find anything, ever?  I've never seen a more useless bit of resource-wasting software!