Google Desktop 5.8 released, with significantly improved performance

According to the official Google blog, Google Desktop 5.8 has been released today.

Google Desktop has two main functions:

1. Desktop search: A more powerful and user-friendly search engine for local files than the built-in Windows search function. You can also launch programs directly from the search results.

2. Desktop toolbar: Like in Windows Vista, you can place some practical or favorite tools like clocks and calendars on the desktop as toolbars. These toolbars can be easily obtained from Google's website.

The currently supported operating systems for Google Desktop are Windows XP/Vista/2000 SP3, Linux, and Mac.

The Chinese version download page for Google Desktop is available here. There is a drop-down menu in the top right corner of this page where you can select the language.

For more detailed descriptions of the features of the Chinese version, see here.

The improvements in this 5.8 upgrade mainly focus on performance. According to the official description, the main improvements and fixes include:

1. Reduced memory usage by nearly 50%.

2. The closing speed is approximately five times faster.

3. Fixed an issue where some files being added to the search results and interacting with third-party software caused the computer to slow down for unknown reasons.

4. Fixed a rare issue that caused temporary slowness during startup.

5. Since Google Desktop can use many third-party tools, some may not run well and cause the user's computer to slow down. This update adds a feature that detects if a tool is slowing down your computer, automatically stops it, and asks the user if they want to remove the tool.

6. To reduce memory usage and fragmentation, Google Desktop 5.8 reduces the number of processes and frequently recycles them, similar to Google Chrome (Chrome, download here).

7. An improvement that makes Outlook happy: While increasing support coverage and stability for Outlook, it further reduces memory usage.