1. There is nothing in my 5.9.0909.02235-en-pb System Tray Icon about
*'Indexing'*, *'Lock Search'*, or *'Deskbar'*.  Nothing; they are just
not there. All one sees is: Search Desktop // Options // Sidebar /
Floating Bar / None // Add Gadgets / About / Exit.

2. There is no link to index status anymore on Google Desktop /
Desktop Preferences / Desktop Search.

Putting 1. and 2. together, there is no way to know the status of the
index, to re-index, to pause indexes, to know what has been indexed
recently, etc.

3.  While the inexplicable documentation for Google Desktop entitled,
"Managing the Index: Finding and backing up your index" at
< http://desktop.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=13799 >
maintains that one "usually" finds the index for a Vista (x64) machine
on
"Windows Vista: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Google\Google Desktop\" this is
ludicrous, and suggests that Google doesn't know much about Vista.

Show me a single Vista machine with a "localappdata" directory!  This
is so XP!

If I might quote my other inquiry, my index is at  <Root>/Users/
<UserName>/AppData/Local/Google/Google Desktop/<random named dir>.

According to official Microsoft Vista documentation AppData has three
branches: Local, LocalLow, and Roaming.  This is valuable knowledge
for many Vista users since *most* user app data is put under the
'roaming' branch (not the "local" branch as apparently the Google
designers are preferring).

Adobe, for example, puts all of its appdata on the 'roaming' branch,
as does Apple, and, oh, least I forget, Microsoft itself.  For
example, Microsoft puts the "Start Menu" under "...roaming/microsoft/
windows/start menu".

According to official Microsoft Vista documentation <http://
download.microsoft.com/download/3/b/a/3ba6d659-6e39-4cd7-
b3a2-9c96482f5353/Managing%20Roaming%20User%20Data%20Deployment
%20Guide.doc>:   "Windows uses the Roaming folder for application
specific data, such as custom dictionaries, which are machine
independent and should roam with the user profile. The AppData\Roaming
folder in Windows Vista is the same as the Documents and Settings
\username\Application Data folder in Windows XP."

While MS is never too clear, it does seem that Google coders are
unclear about the conventions of Vista and are unclear where they want
to put things.  Maybe this could explain the the disappearance of the
're-index' etc. options from the menus, and the inability of google
desktop to even search for text files a few sub-directories down on
the home document page.

4.  I could go on about other problems with this 5.9.0909.02235-en-
pb.   For example, when I do a search the results page states that it
has found and is displaying "1-10 of 3".  Not three pages, but three
results.  And not "1-10 of 13"  Now google desktop is showing ten
results (never any more).  If I look for another potentially large
sample, I will get the same "1-10 of 3".

So this "5.9.0909.02235-en-pb" appears to be dysfunctional and unable
to abide by even basic Vista conventions.  Great company!

On Sep 8, 6:22 pm, Gord McFee wrote: