Update Google Desktop before installing Leopard

Stephen Withers
Friday, 26 October 2007 04:42

Business IT - Technology

Google Desktop 1.3 provides compatibility with Mac OS X 10.5, and updating it before you upgrade to Leopard will smooth the process.

Google warns that "an installer issue" puts a speed-bump in the process if you do things the other way round, requiring users to manually delete the old receipt file before the new version can be installed. It's not that this is difficult, just that some people aren't comfortable digging around in system folders.

As usual, updating Google Desktop triggers a reindexing process that may be  time consuming and can slow the system. Google's release notes say "To expedite indexing, we recommend that you have at least 10% disk space remaining" - probably true for most users, and if that's not the case for your Mac it might be time for some housekeeping - "and defragment your hard disk before installing."

That's more contentious. While it is believable that a defragmented disk will index more quickly, it's a process that Apple seems to discourage without actually saying "don't do it."

A more practical question is long it takes to defrag a drive. Such tools can be very time consuming - as in "I left it running when I went home and it was still going when I arrived at the office next morning."

Alternatives include cloning your hard disk to an external drive, erasing it, then cloning back again; or backing up, 'clean' reinstalling the operating system, then restoring from the backup. You'll measure both of these methods in hours rather than minutes.

However you approach defragging, you can't (or in some cases shouldn't) use  the computer for anything else at the same time. So I simply accept that my computer is going to be slightly sluggish while Google Desktop reindexes. Your experience may differ, but for me the process finished in less time than it took to write about it. The story's different if you're installing Google Desktop for the first time, as building the index from scratch is a much bigger job. Even then, indexing doesn't seem to have too much impact on other applications.

Anyway, is there anything in Google Desktop 1.3 apart from Leopard compatibility? The bug fixes are relatively minor, and much the same can be said for the feature improvements. The "architecture improvements" may have been necessary for 10.5 compatibility, but the removal of input managers from Google Desktop will surely be regarded as a Good Thing by those who regard them as a security evil.