About Google Desktop
Info when you want it, right on your desktop
Google Desktop gives you easy access to information on your computer and from the web. It's a desktop search application that provides full text search over your email, computer files, music, photos, chats and web pages that you've viewed. By making your computer searchable, Google Desktop puts your information easily within your reach and frees you from having to manually organize your files, emails and bookmarks. It makes searching your computer as easy as searching the web with Google.
New! Google Desktop 2 (Beta)
Google Desktop doesn't just help you search your computer; it also helps you gather new information from the web with Sidebar, a new desktop feature that shows you your new email, weather and stock information, personalized news and RSS/Atom feeds, and more. Sidebar is personalized automatically, without any manual configuration required (though you can certainly make your own customizations if you want to).
We've also improved your desktop search experience. With Quick Find, you can now launch applications and see search results as you type without even opening a browser. We've also extended our Outlook integration, so you can search Google Desktop with the Outlook Toolbar and see results within Outlook itself. Finally, you can search even more stuff, including your Gmail files on network drives, many Outlook data types (including Contacts, Tasks, Calendar, Notes and Journal) and MSN Messenger chats. And if you yearn for even stronger security, you can encrypt your entire index.
Frequently Asked Questions
  1. What does Google Desktop do?
  2. Why would I want Google Desktop?
  3. How do I upgrade from an older version of Google Desktop?
  4. Where do I go to do a desktop search?
  5. How can I control what's displayed in Sidebar?
  6. What are the system requirements for running Google Desktop?
  7. How long does the download take?
  8. How easy is Google Desktop to install?
  9. How soon can I search my computer after I install Google Desktop?
  10. Can I use Google Desktop at my company?
  11. Will Google Desktop affect my computer's performance?
  12. What about my privacy? Does Google Desktop share my content with anyone?
  13. Should I install Google Desktop on a computer that I share with other users?
  14. Why doesn't Google Desktop search all my communications and files?
  15. What languages is Google Desktop available in?
  16. How do I uninstall Google Desktop?
  17. Can I make a suggestion?
1. What does Google Desktop do?
With Google Desktop, you can easily find personalized info from the web with Sidebar and search the full text of your email, files, chats and web history with Quick Find. You can you can search:
  • Email from Gmail, Outlook 2000+, Outlook Express 5+, Netscape Mail 7.1+, Mozilla Mail 1.4+ and Thunderbird
  • Files on your computer, including text, Word, Excel, Powerpoint, PDF, MP3, image, audio, and video files. You can even search your media files by meta-tag: for instance, by artist name and song title, not just the file name.
  • Web pages you've viewed using Internet Explorer 5+, Netscape 7.1+, Mozilla 1.4+ and Firefox.
  • Chats from AOL 7+, AOL Instant Messenger 5+, and MSN Messenger
With Sidebar, you can see:
  • Email inbox
  • Personalized News
  • Weather
  • Stocks
  • Web clips (RSS/Atom feeds)
  • Photos
  • A scratch pad for jotting down notes
  • Commonly used web pages and documents
2. Why would I want Google Desktop?
Since you can easily search information on your computer, you don't need to worry about organizing your files, email or bookmarks. With Sidebar, you can easily see new information that's relevant to you without having to use a web browser.
3. How do I upgrade from an older version of Google Desktop Search?
Google Desktop updates itself automatically to the most recent non-beta version of Google Desktop (new versions that are in "beta" will not be automatically installed). To make sure you're running the newest release, go to the Google Desktop home page, click on "About" at the bottom of the page, and find the "Google Desktop Build" text at the bottom of the About page. If the build number is 20050814 or greater, you're running the latest release. If the build number is smaller, just download the new version.
4. Where do I go to do a desktop search?
You can search your desktop using the search box that's displayed on your desktop. You can also just do an ordinary Google web search; your desktop results will appear at the top of the list.
5. How can I control what's displayed in Sidebar?
You can control exactly what's displayed in Sidebar. Specifically, you can add new panels, remove panels, drag panels to reorder them, resize panels by dragging a panel's edge, view all the items in a panel with one click, and configure other panel settings. Learn more about Sidebar.
6. What are the system requirements for running Google Desktop?
Google Desktop is currently available for Windows XP and Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 and above. To install it on an office machine, you should have administrator privileges (home users shouldn't have this problem). It requires 500MB of available space on your hard disk, and we recommend a minimum of 256MB of RAM and a 400MHz Pentium processor.
7. How long does the download take?
The download is only about 1.3MB and will take a few seconds over broadband or about 4 minutes over a typical modem.
8. How easy is Google Desktop to install?
Installing Google Desktop is quick and easy: (Click on the link provided by us)
  1. Click here to go to the download page. Click the "Agree and Download" button to start.
  2. Click "Open" or "Run" in the new window that appears. The download will start.
  3. Google Desktop may ask you to quit some open applications, like Internet Explorer or Outlook. Click "OK" to quit these applications and start the installation.
  4. After about a minute, a web page will appear congratulating you on a successful installation. It will also ask you to set a few preferences.
  5. Next you'll be notified that Google Desktop is preparing your index.
  6. Just click "Start searching" to start using Google Desktop.
9. How soon can I search my computer after I install Google Desktop?
As soon as you install it, Google Desktop starts indexing the email, files, and web pages that were already stored on your computer. This process occurs while you aren't using your computer and may take several hours, depending on how many items need to be indexed (it may make sense to install the program late at night or before you go to lunch). You can search the indexed items during this time. You can also restart your computer and indexing will resume where it left off.
10. Can I use Google Desktop at my company?
Yes. Searching email is a common use of Google Desktop in a business environment. If your company doesn't allow you to install programs on your PC, ask your IT Administrator or Helpdesk about Google Desktop for Enterprise. This version of Google Desktop can easily and securely be deployed across your company.
11. Will Google Desktop affect my computer's performance?
Google Desktop shouldn't slow down your computer's performance at all, because it only builds its index when you aren't using your machine.
12. What about my privacy? Does Google Desktop share my content with anyone?
We treat your privacy with the utmost respect. Google Desktop doesn't make your computer's content accessible to Google or anyone else without your explicit consent. The application also offers privacy options such as encrypting the index and not indexing password-protected Office files or secure (HTTPS) web pages.
13. Should I install Google Desktop on a computer that I share with other users?
If users use separate Windows accounts (usernames to login), you should be comfortable installing Google Desktop on each account. One user will not be able to access another user's Desktop index. However, if users share the same Windows account on a single computer, then either user will be able to search all indexed activity on that computer. If you're comfortable with this, go ahead and install; if you're not comfortable, please don't install.
14. Why doesn't Google Desktop search all my communications and files?
Google Desktop is designed to search the most common items on your computer. If it doesn't search everything you want it to, be sure to check out the Plug-in Download page to find plug-ins that expand its capabilities. Developers can also learn more about developing plug-ins.
15. What languages is Google Desktop available in?
Google Desktop is currently available in English, Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean and Spanish. You can also do a limited number of searches in other languages. We're committed to making this product available in as many languages as possible, though, so stay tuned. Sidebar and other new features are currently only available in English.
16. How do I uninstall Google Desktop?
You can easily uninstall Google Desktop by going to Start > Programs > Google Desktop > Uninstall Google Desktop.
17. Can I make a suggestion?
Your opinions and feedback can help us continue to improve Google Desktop. What types of files or other information would you like to be able to search? What new features would be helpful?