1 - You can search your home computer files from Your work computer
The latest version of Google Desktop provides a Search Across Computers feature (to use it, you'll need a Google account).
To enable Search Across Computers for your computer, follow the instructions below for each computer:
1. From the Google Desktop homepage, click "Desktop Preferences," and click the "Google Account Features" tab.
2. Check the box next to the feature "Search Across Computers."
3. Under "Edit Account," enter your full Google Account username and password and click "OK."
4. Your unique computer name should appear in the "Name this computer" field. Your search results will display this name on other computers, and you'll be able to search for results using this name.
5. Select the radio button next to what type of files you'd like to make available to other computers, and click "Save Preferences" to apply the settings.
Don't forget to use the same Google account on all computers you'd like to access remotely, and use a unique computer name for each computer. Once you've successfully enabled Google Desktop's Search Across Computers feature, Google Desktop will use your computer's internet connection to upload and receive information from another computer. Your web history and cached documents will automatically become available on other computers within a few hours. On average, the Search Across Computers feature can index about 5000 files that you've been working with recently. Currently, any content that is older than 30 days will be deleted from Google Desktop's servers so there is enough room for new content.
When retrieving results from another computer using the Search Across Computers feature, Google Desktop may not fully index individual web documents larger than 100Kb. Results from another computer will display as cached results, no thumbnail will be available for the page, and the shared files will be limited to office documents, text and PDF files in your My Documents folder, and your web history. For these supported files, documents larger than 300Kb may be truncated on external computers to save space.
The Search Across Computers feature will only share the documents you've accessed since turning on the feature. Any documents accessed before this feature was turned on will not be automatically shared with other computers.
2 - You can synchronizes your Firefox settings, bookmarks, history, cookies, and saved passwords across your computers without using Google Desktop.
Example: You have Google Browser Sync installed at home and office. You surf for 10 pages at home and then go to office. Those 10 pages will come at your office machine. To use Google Browser Sync, simply install and configure the extension on all computers for which you'd like your browser settings automatically kept in sync. You can also use it to backup your browser settings and to restore your open tabs and windows across browser sessions. Install this Firefox extension here.
3 - You can make a backup copy of the Google Desktop Search Index (also named Google Desktop Search Cache)
If you need to backup the Google Desktop index you will find it in one of these folders:
- C:\Documents And Settings\<Your Username>\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Google Desktop\<some alphanumeric code (12 digits)>
- C:\Documents And Settings\Administrator\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Google Desktop\<some alphanumeric code (12 digits)>
- C:\Users\<Your Username>\Appdata\Local\Google\Google Desktop\<some alphanumeric code (12 digits)>
The Google Desktop index is made by huge files with random extensions like ht1 cf1 (stop Google Desktop before copying index files)
4 - You can delete individual items from Google Desktop search cache or delete the entire Google Desktop cache
Why you would delete something from the Google Destktop cache? Because it contains traces of your online activity and copy of your recently opened documents. Besides this you should keep in mind that if you delete a document or an email, there are still copies of it in your Google Desktop cache. To get rid of those copies you have to explicitly delete them from Google Desktop.
To delete a message from your Google Desktop search cache click the Remove email link in the upper right corner of the page (this only deletes the message from the Desktop cache, not from your email application). If you look at this message again while Desktop is running, it will go back into your cache.
To remove every item from the Google Desktop Search cache, you can delete the Google Desktop search index and restart the software. This will reset the Google Desktop index.
- Close Google Desktop by clicking the tray icon and choose exit.
- Open the folder: C:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\application data\Google\Google Desktop\some alphanumeric code (12 digits); You will see huge files with random extensions like ht1 cf1.
- Delete all files in this folder except the files that start with sidebar_
If you can't find the files look also in the folders listed above, at the point number 3 - Start the Google Desktop Search.
5 - You can fix the problem that occurs when you install Firefox or Thunderbird after Google Desktop
If you install Mozilla Firefox, Mozilla, and/or Thunderbird after you install Google Desktop Search, Desktop Search may not be able to find your Web history or Email. The easiest way to resolve this problem is to uninstall and reinstall Google Desktop. However, if this isn't possible, you can try the following steps:
- Open the C:\Program Files\Google\Google Desktop directory.
- Find the three GoogleDesktopMozilla files in this directory.
- Copy these files to the following directory:
- For Firefox: C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\components
- For Mozilla: C:\Program Files\mozilla.org\Mozilla\components
- For Thunderbird: C:\Program Files\Mozilla Thunderbird\components - Close Firefox, Mozilla, and/or Thunderbird.
- Delete the compreg.dat file located in the following directory:
- For Firefox: C:\Documents and Settings\%USERNAME%\Application
Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\[RANDOM]
- For Mozilla: C:\Program Files\mozilla.org\Mozilla\components
- For Thunderbird: C:\Documents and Settings\%USERNAME%\Application
Data\Thunderbird\Profiles\[RANDOM] - Reopen Firefox, Mozilla, and/or Thunderbird.
Once you've done this, Google Desktop should begin indexing your Web history and Email.
