In a post on the Microsoft Update team’s blog, Microsoft advised users that it is planning to release Windows Search 4.0 to Windows Update “sometime in late July.” Windows Search 4.0, features stability and reliability improvements, giving more control to enterprise IT administrators over a users’ access to and use of search facilities.

Windows XP users will see Windows Search 4.0 available as an Optional update, which means you must visit the Windows Update Web site to install it.  Windows Vista users with SP1 installed will see the update as a recommended update.  This means that, if a Windows Vista user has set their machine to automatically install updates, Windows Search 4.0 will automatically install on PCs running Windows Vista SP1.

After installing the major update, Windows Desktop 4.0 will completely re-index the user’s data, a prerequisite for executing fast local searches. Depending on the amount of data on the machine and Windows Desktop 4.0’s settings, Microsoft warned users that re-indexing may take as long as several hours.

Windows Search 4.0 will update the search features in Windows Vista SP1, Windows XP SP2 and Windows XP SP3, Windows Server 2003 SP2, Windows Server 2008 and Windows Home Server, said Microsoft.
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