Change Google Desktop Search data directory24 Jan 2007, 1713 read(s)
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Google Desktop Search has recently become one of the most used programs. There is no doubt that such a program is quite useful and besides that Google Desktop Search is achieving its own aim, it's much more then a local search machine.
However in this article I will show you how to change the data directory of Google Desktop Search (where the cache is located). This is a simple hack, but it's not implemented in the Google Desktop Search.
Usually your personal index is stored only on your own hard drive. The data directory should be:
C:\Documents and Settings\%USERNAME%\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Google Desktop Search
* If you've installed your Windows on other drive different from C: then the directory might be different.
What Google say in their Help Desk about changing the data directory: "We don't offer a way to change where this index is stored, but we may consider adding this feature in the future."
Well, I couldn't find such a feature so I decided to look into the files and settings of the program to make it work with another directory.
Why do I need this? Strange, but when I installed Google Desktop Search, then it installed itself in C:\, but actually set its data directory to Z:\ which was my backup drive (I don't have any memories to have set that manually). I wouldn't keep such data there. Moreover, the free space decreased as the cache increased. So … that's how the idea came.
What you need to do:
1. Make sure you exit Google Desktop Search. Make also sure that the processes of the program (GoogleDesktopIndex.exe, GoogleDesktopCrawl.exe, GoogleDesktop.exe) are terminated (if not when exiting the program).
2. Open regedit.exe (Start -> Run -> type regedit and click Enter). Find the registry key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Google\Google Desktop\data_dir
The value shows the current data directory which the program uses. Navigate to the parent of this directory (the parent of the Google Desktop folder).
If the current directory is:
Z:\Google Desktop Data\b5e4637e64a2
Then navigate to:
Z:\
Move the Google Desktop Data folder to the new directory, where you want it to be. Usually you would want:
C:\Documents and Settings\%USERNAME%\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\
* replace %USERNAME% with your computer username
3. Change the value of the registry key you opened previously to the new directory.
4. Start Google Desktop Search and make sure it shows that there are some items indexed so far.
WARNING! As a side-effect of this hack the Google Desktop Search might forget that it has indexed 100% of the files on your computer. Actually the cache would be perfectly working. After some time the program will understand that there is nothing new to index so it's go back too 100% cache.
Changing the data directory in this way is a better choice than actually reinstalling the program and waiting again a lot of hours indexing.
Comments Luzian: Great - it works! Anonymous: ptscanr ucrbast: wblxnj tscmhxko yvlqfdmcn fymrq gamesxnlq gcmv vihwfz ret: Awesome! You just freed up 6gb from my increasingly creeky C drive. |
