Someone reviewed v on Jul 5, 2022

Pros: 555

Cons: 555

Bottom Line: 555

TomA102210 reviewed v3.0.270.0 on May 29, 2008

some guy said:


"msn has become to much like AOL over bloated crap"
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One mans meat is anothers potatoes. Some folks like lots of things in their providers such as what AOL and MSN have. I can pick and choose the content I want to see and leave the rest alone. As for which one became this so called "bloated" first, that's a matter of opinion. If you're looking for a provider that is less so, there are plenty out there.

Tboltness reviewed v2.0.5.1110 on Aug 8, 2005

This is pretty cool, because it gives IE tab support. It's kind of slow but other than that, it's cool.

zridling reviewed v2.0.5.1110 on Aug 5, 2005

I care nothing about the toolbar and don't even want it. But the Desktop Search kicks it. Highly programmable. I —ove this thing.

Neoprimal reviewed v2.0.5.1110 on Aug 5, 2005

While it's a very good product. I LOVE the search and the toolbar is cool too, the tabbed feature is weak, but functional. I had to keep it uninstalled however since my IE started having erratic behavior about a month after using this. Uninstalled it and things are back to normal.

I can't point the finger at this, but if you install something and things mess up and when you remove it things go back to normal, I'm left to wonder. Thus the 4.

IE behavior:

IE started to freeze. Sometimes I'd try to load a page and it would take 20 seconds or more to begin loading. Not only that but on occasion IE would completely freeze or lockup and I'd have to 'force close' the program from task manager. The problem became more frequent. Started seeing it on my laptop also (only 2 things both machines had in common in relativity to when these occurrences began was the search and toolbar). I was told to try many things, including stopping the toolbar from loading, clearing SSL state, have IE be a separate process - nothing worked. Decided to TRY removing the toolbar and search and that did the trick.

dejavu reviewed v2.0.5.1110 on Aug 5, 2005

Strange behavior in my machine. After install, scan in grc.com shows port 135 open.

nickpowers101 reviewed v2.0.5.1082 on Jun 27, 2005

Although the tabbed browsing feature not nearly as elegant as Mozilla Firefox, it's functional.

However, the desktop search is VERY IMPRESSIVE. Personally, I find it to be a lot better than the Google product - that's just a personal preference though.

darthbeads reviewed v2.0.5.1082 on Jun 27, 2005

@jonspencerbx: "It's even worse than FF's tab implementation."

Please backup your inane comment.

littlebits reviewed v2.0.5.1082 on Jun 26, 2005

For the toolbar and tab browser, I give it a 3. Because it also installs the desktop search which I have no use for. It should give you an option to only install the toolbar with the tabbed browser. I also noticed that it made Internet Explorer more slower. I resulted in just uninstalling it.

derekaw reviewed v2.0.5.1082 on Jun 26, 2005

I rate it 5 for desktop/email search only, I think the tabs in ie are crap. I like how the indexing will pause when you are using yr machine or you can snooze the indexing manually. I wish the MSN butterfly was not there.

fullfilth reviewed v2.0.5.1082 on Jun 26, 2005

Hope Google toolbar for IE will support Tab. This tab features is bad.

jonspencerbx reviewed v2.0.5.1082 on Jun 26, 2005

The tabs are very badly implemented. It's even worse than FF's tab implementation.

I really couldn't care less about all the other stuff that is included. As a previous poster said:
Give us the option to install certain components (desktop search and tabs have absolutely nothing to do with eachother and should be two seperate applications imho).

ghammer reviewed v2.0.5.1082 on Jun 26, 2005

Best local search going.
Don't care for toolbars, the tab kludge is ok but not up to speed.
But for the local file search alone I give it a 5.

mryosho- Don't be an idiot. Why would I care if a Desktop Search did its job and indexed my files? Geez, get a clue.

wincement reviewed v2.0.2.1007 on Jun 9, 2005

I noticed the same bug rogueworld mentioned. The tabs definitely have a few rough spots to work out. All-in-all though, a very useful tool considering the desktop search function especially. It works great, and unlike Google, allows you to configure exactly what is indexed.

ShafuyZ reviewed v2.0.2.1007 on Jun 9, 2005

The version number is actually 2.2.0.1007 (which replaces 2.1.0.2217). Seems slightly more stable. Much slower than Google. Tabs implementation sucks - much better off with Maxthon or even Firefox.

rogueworld reviewed v2.0.2.1007 on Jun 9, 2005

OK, i've given this a 4 because of the search features. Its great, and with the ability to add in plugins (for additionnal file types) its great.

Don't bother getting this if you want the tab browsing feature though. Its usless. Buggys, and unusable. Its really annoying. New windows still open in new windows. You can occasionally loose your tabs unexpectedly, but it still retains their presence in memory. i.e. BBC Radio 1 screen, i've just been surfing the web whilst listening to the radio (via tabs), i close one tab (using the tabbed browsing x) i no longer have the radio 1 tab page. But the music is still playing.....twisted.

bakura reviewed v2.0.2.1007 on Jun 8, 2005

Tabs are a welcome addition to IE6. The desktop search feature works well. I give it a 4 for these reasons and the fact that it does what it says it will do.

I wish that I could choose what Internet search engine I want to use, and have the ability to enter additional search engines. I'm not a huge fan of these "toolbars" because they only do a mediocre job on many of their features (pop-up blocking, form filler, etc). I'd like to be able to turn off the toolbar part completely and only have the tabs and desktop search feature.

exhibit reviewed v2.0.2.1007 on Jun 8, 2005

Does the job ok but I prefer google's once you load up the extensions for other filetypes etc

ArabianNight reviewed v2.0.2.1007 on Jun 8, 2005

its alrite. but google is better. besides, they copied google anyways.

codeaero reviewed v2.0.2.1007 on Jun 8, 2005

Great! Webpage searching could be enhanced though.

darthbeads:
The tabbed browsing introduced in the MSN toolbar has NOTHING to do with IE7...

zridling reviewed v2.0.2.1007 on Jun 8, 2005

Very fast, very clean, very nice. Best of all, you can program it to do anything you want, unlike other search utilities.

darthbeads reviewed v2.0.2.1007 on Jun 8, 2005

Hands down my favorite desktop search indexer. Searches network drives unlike Google, and faster than Copernic.

Also, this new version includes a less-than-great tabbed browsing interface directly for Internet Explorer through the toolbar. Worth checking out for the novelty and for a preview of IE 7.

zridling reviewed v2.0.1.2214 on May 16, 2005

Why use the toolbar? The Desktop Search is killer.

Ragle Gumm reviewed v2.0.1.2214 on May 16, 2005

Competition is always good. Now that the big gorilla is in the other ones have to react. My current personal favorite is X1 (www.x1.com) because it´s the only one that indexes PDF *and* Lotus Notes.

Now let´s see what Google et al. will do ...

Mountain_Man reviewed v2.0.1.2214 on May 16, 2005

Well, being a google fan boy, I must admit this is better. Google know their online stuff, MS know their desktop stuff. It may be a copy/ripoff but who cares. I want something that works well and this does. Fast turn around time too - see what happens when MS puts its mind to something...

hunterb reviewed v2.0.1.1203 Beta on Feb 3, 2005

Fast. Good interface. Very promising for a beta.
Can't specify different web search engine (or even MSN but not US) and must have US Engish language installed (Australian English is not not enough apparently)
Maxthon doesn't see it as a toolbar :(

musickevin reviewed v2.0.1.1203 Beta on Feb 1, 2005

I'm pretty happy that I've installed this. I didn't realize how much I had to scour my computer for one file. OK, so I'm sure we pretty much agree that Desktop Search is a good idea. Now, which one?

I've tried Google, Yahoo, and MSN and out of those three, I lean toward MSN for many reasons. I know that appearance isn't always where it's at, but MSN is and attractive piece of software. Easy to navigate and intelligent when it comes to interaction.

I also like the depth to which this program is imbedded into the system. I like that there are multiple locations from which to search.

Agreed that MSN takes more system than Google, but I didn't notice any slowdown except with Yahoo Desktop Search.

So, all said, I would choose this one for now. We'll see what other future versions look like.

gobrian89 reviewed v2.0.0.1180 Beta on Jan 21, 2005

I like this version because I can search right from there on my taskbar, but not just MSN, but Encarta, Dictionaries and other things. It makes my life easier. I don't really use the indexing and the searching my computer that much. But then the intergration into outlook and Internet Explorer is great. It just uses MSN messenger and it will tell you when you have mail while surfing the net.

DawMatt reviewed v2.0.0.1180 Beta on Jan 5, 2005

This is currently my desktop search tool of choice. It doesn't impact overall system performance as much as Copernic (which slowed down ALL of my disk activity), and it offers PDF indexing (Google Desktop Search's Achilles Heel).

Now its only a matter of waiting to see who will be first to support PDF/Firefox History/Lotus Notes indexing all in the same product...

Jerryseinfeld reviewed v1.02.0002.1001 on Dec 27, 2004

When does it hook up with the new msn search so you can search for images?

Raven Sati reviewed v2.0.0.1180 Beta on Dec 21, 2004

I have never seen a program take so much RAM - it is not exactly "free" this way. If nobody competes them they just produce bloatware junk. If the stories of unlimited free caffiene drinks at MS are true it would explain why thay do this. Cognitive damage. Wait and see on any of this.

Pipewrench reviewed v2.0.0.1180 Beta on Dec 20, 2004

This is the best search tool I've ever used. I tried Google's desktop search about 3 weeks ago and I thought it was only "fair".
This is a FAST search tool. I have it indexing all my hard drives and all my email and attachments. I just start typing and most of the time I have found what I wanted before I'm done typing the search term.
I love the Outlook portion of the search the best. It blows away the default search tool in outlook.
All in all this is a great tool. I can't wait until the final version is out. I wouldn't install it on a computer with less than 733MHz and 512MB RAM however. It does hog stuff up a little but I have a 1.3GHz Pentium M and 1GB RAM so who cares :) It takes a little while to index stuff but it's well worth it when it's done.

Good job Microsoft! I highly recommend.

baloor reviewed v2.0.0.1180 Beta on Dec 17, 2004

It's sitting in my system tray doing nothing right now, and is chewing over 100MB of memory.
For those dribbling on about it using IE, look again, the program it opens is called Windows Explorer.

I probably won't use it in the long term, but it does the job. Has far more features than Google Desktop Search, but with a greatly significant resouce load.

Baggio reviewed v2.0.0.1180 Beta on Dec 14, 2004

I wish it had website history searching (if it does, I haven't found it), but everything else is great. If you are using MSN Spaces, there is a button on the toolbar that hooks directly up with that service. I guess Google has a similar feature with their Blogger, but I especially like Spaces. Search is quick and very welcome.

darthbeads reviewed v2.0.0.1180 Beta on Dec 13, 2004

I like the search and the deskbar features. However, it is deeply irritiating (but in no way surprising) that search results are forced to display in Internet Explorer.

pvolk reviewed v1.02.0002.1001 on Nov 12, 2004

Yes it works fine and is functional in all aspects, but its simply a ripoff of the google bar and therefore deserves a 2.

captainahab reviewed v1.01.1501.0 on Apr 25, 2004

Great toolbar, nice direct connections to Hotmail, My MSN and MSN Messenger. As good as any by Google or anyone else.

Don't listen to the anarchist anti-Microsoft babies who see dark mysterious conspiracies in a bowl of Jello.

blackimp reviewed v1.01.1501.0 on Mar 17, 2004

i like it. straight forward and does what it says.

BonnieD reviewed v1.01.1501.0 on Mar 10, 2004

I really wish MS would just work on the operating system!

ghammer reviewed v1.01.1501.0 on Mar 10, 2004

Just an anti MS basher review.

Keep your holy wars at home.

Neoprimal reviewed v1.01.1501.0 on Mar 9, 2004

How exactly does my statement, ruin, my 'speech' as you refer to it.

Let me clarify, in case you're 10 and didn't understand or just a moron looking for trouble.

I got the toolbar at its beta stage because it was the only toolbar that had a popup blocker built in when it was released. Yahoo and Google did not have a popup blocker when the MSN toolbar was released. We all get various toolbars for various reasons, some get yahoo because it integrates with my yahoo, some get google because of the search capabilities, some get altavista and so on and so forth.

REVIEW the software, don't get on here, bash it and rate it down without a valid reason. Be impartial and objective.
Does the MSN Toolbar serve it's purpose????? YES, does it crash? No. Does it cause errors in IE? No. Does it block popup websites? YES. Are you able to search MSN's Search from it? YES. Why give it a 1?

Grow up.

ogman reviewed v1.01.1501.0 on Mar 9, 2004

No doubt, in future versions of Windows, only the MSN toolbar will work properly. Yet another fine "innovation."

geekz reviewed v1.01.1501.0 on Mar 9, 2004

more monopolistic junk. Stick with Google.

tylerj99 reviewed v1.01.1501.0 on Mar 9, 2004

Works great. Ignore everyones insensible ramblings. Pop-up blocker has missed a few compared to Google, but it's still a new piece of software.

chimpypimpy reviewed v1.01.1501.0 on Mar 9, 2004

I would keep MSN Toolbar but the buttons are miscoloured. Other than that it's great.

If MSN copied from Google, than Google is a ripoff from Yahoo! Children...

DPK reviewed v1.01.1501.0 on Mar 9, 2004

Do you people even know what the definition of "software review" is?

I think they did a good job for what it is worth. Giving it a 5 in an effort to pull the rating up.

lastsamurai reviewed v1.01.1501.0 on Mar 9, 2004

1.ripoff, no doubt about that.they should be working more on that build-in popup blocker comes with SP2.
2.MSN Search engine sucks. it sucks soooooo bad.
3.those hotmail and messenger buttons are useless, IE standard buttons already include them. wut the hell were they thinking?

noredspoon reviewed v1.01.1501.0 on Mar 9, 2004

yes, this is a lot like the google toolbar. Tell me how you can make a toolbar with a search engine NOT look like the google bar. You can't. They do basically the same things. This one has features for MSN users that would come in really handy. Don't get me wrong, I don't like it. But it does do exactly what it says it should, and does it well.

norky reviewed v1.01.1501.0 on Mar 9, 2004

Yahoo had a toolbar first so there goes that arguement. This toolbar does have some neat options that Google doesn't.

daxno reviewed v1.0.1322.0 Beta on Feb 3, 2004

Google toolbar > MSN Toolbar

Kompressor reviewed v1.0.1322.0 Beta on Jan 27, 2004

As if I would want MSN crap on my system.

CPUGuy reviewed v1.0.1322.0 Beta on Jan 27, 2004

So just because it has a similar feature set it sucks?
That would mean Google Bar has to suck too.

Seriously, grow the hell up, and stop giving this a bad review just because it's 'a ripoff'.

pvolk reviewed v1.0.1322.0 Beta on Jan 26, 2004

YEah ...Ripoff....oh excuse me. Its just that google was the original...this is a copy. Simple.

Aprazeth reviewed v1.0.1322.0 Beta on Jan 26, 2004

Indeed, it does compare itself quite a lot to Google's toolbar. However, the bar has a bit more to offer... Well more towards Microsoft's / MSN's own material and websites

The toolbar runs quite stable, but has a few graphical glitches. Namely if you use a dark(-er) style theme on Windows XP (Using Style XP 2.0 BETA here myself) it still displays a white border around the buttons. Hopefully this will get resolved in a future release.

DaveNCheez reviewed v1.0.1322.0 Beta on Jan 26, 2004

cough... ripoff... cough...

it's the google toolbar... with a different logo.