I installed Windows Desktop Search--with some reluctance--after Outlook 2007 kept prodding me to do so.  Traditionally I've used Google Desktop Search without issue, but I didn't have either installed on this particular machine and decided to give Microsoft's search a try.

One big surprise:  it completely replaces Windows' built-in Find Files & Folders feature that's integrated with Windows Explorer.  I like that Microsoft has provided a rich client UI (as opposed to Google's web-based one), however actually replacing an OS feature is a little hard to justify, especially when it removes some functionality.  In this case, my ability to find files and folders by name is now limited.  If I search for "notepad.exe," for example, I get a "Nothing found in All Locations" message.  Hmmm... Not cool.  (Actually, it looks like if I "click here to use Search Companion" I get the old functionality.  Not really intuitive!  Why didn't Microsoft just add another button to the Explorer toolbar for "Desktop Search" and keep the existing "Search" button working the way it was, or at least provide both search options in the shell namespace tree?)

At any rate, dropping to the command line provides a decent enough workaround, and is probably faster than the Windows UI anyway:

dir /s notepad.exe