Information Research Weblog

I've been using Google Desktop - or rather it has been on my hard disc, unused since October - and I was finding that the system was slowing down. I was also getting a message immediately after booting up to the effect that virtual memory was low. The only thing that I could think of that might be having this effect was Google Desktop, so I've removed it and the problems seem to have disappeared.

When you remove the software a page pops up in your Web browser asking why you've done it and offering some options, one of which was, My system has slowed down - or words to that effect - so, obviously, Google is aware that there is a problem.

Presumably it is the continuous indexing that is the problem and I suppose that the start-up memory needed, is more than what I have can bear. I also noted that Task Manager was telling me that CPU usage was 100% - and that was before I'd launched any application.

Nice idea these desktop search devices, but perhaps the system costs are too high?