TweakGDS uses the Microsoft .NET Framework, and the Microsoft Scripting Runtime. If you get a "failed to initialize" or "missing dll" error, your PC is missing the .NET Framework. If you get an error where the drive list is empty, you are missing the Scripting Runtime. Please see the online FAQ for more information on how to get these files.
If this help file doesn't answer your questions, please feel free to email support [at] podsync.com with questions. We also welcome your suggestions and feedback.
TweakGDS is a small utility that allows you to make changes to advanced Google Desktop Search settings (similar to the TweakUI Powertoy released by Microsoft to allow advanced customization of the Windows XP interface). This utility makes changes to the system registry in order to force GDS to behave differently.
PLEASE NOTE: Google Desktop cannot be running while these changes are being made. TweakGDS provides a convenient link for stopping and restarting the GDS processes.
GDS typically stores your index files at C:\Documents and Settings\[UserName]\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Google Desktop Search. For disk space reasons, you may want to store your index somewhere else. TweakGDS will tell you where your index currently resides, and you can specify a new location easily. Note that moving your index does NOT require a re-index - GDS will automatically work with the new location when it is restarted.
TweakGDS will list the drives attached to your computer, so you can put a check next to the ones you want GDS to index or re-index. The checked drives are added to the list to be indexed/re-indexed when GDS is restarted. You can even add network shares from My Network Places. Note that GDS handles indexing of network drives differently than regular drives, and GDS may show you search results for a drive even after you've disconnected it. Google Desktop Extreme includes a setting to only show results from active drives, which may be of help.
You can specify a list of folders to be indexed in addition to your drives, so that searching only occurs within the folders you have listed (i.e., My Documents). Simply add the desired folders to the list and make sure they have checks next to them, just like the drives. Note that checked drives override folders that are located on the same drive, so you will get results from the entire drive rather than just the sub-folder. Also note that if you open files that aren't within your specified index folders, GDS may still add them to your index.
You can force GDS to re-index your hard drive with a simple click (make sure you have your desired drives checked!). If you don't think GDS is re-indexing enough (i.e., you get search results that have been moved or deleted), you can force a full re-index whenever you'd like by deleting the existing index cache. The full re-indexing may take some time to complete, so start the re-index when you won't need GDS functionality for a while.
The GDS preferences page only lets you select 10, 20, 30, 50, or 100 results per page. TweakGDS lets you specify any number between 1 and 10000 to show per page. Be warned that very large numbers can significantly slow down the response time ofthe GDS engine and your browser.
You can launch TweakGDS without using the interface, if you just want to set it on a timer with Task Scheduler. Simply set up your task to run when desired, and make sure it points to the TweakGDS.exe file on your hard drive. Then make sure you add the optional arguments to the run box - if you do not specify any additional arguments, the user interface will launch. If you want to re-index all attached/mapped drives, add the word "/all" to the run box. If you want to run a complete re-index (including deleting the cache), add the word "/complete" in the run box. To specify only specific drives to index, add the drive letters with a space between them in the run box. To specify folders to index, enclose the full path in quotes.
Example command lines, assuming TweakGDS is in a PodSync.com Program Files folder:
TweakGDS does not actual install itself - it simply makes temporary changes to the system registry in order to tell GDS to re-index. GDS will reset these changes as soon as it's done indexing. If you need to remove TweakGDS, simply delete all of the files you downloaded.