Adding network locations to Windows7 Libraries on a SBS Domain

With the plethora of Windows 7 laptops and PCs connecting to the SBS networks, one of the new features – Libraries – is causing some problems. The issue is the inability to add a network location to the libraries unless the network location is cached using offline files. This caused some problems for me and for some of my clients. Perfectly normal 80GB-160GB hard drives were running out of space, due to the large amount of network information being cached. This also caused some slow network connection issues as the offline files were cached and maintained.
 
For SBS2003, the solution is solved by installing Windows Search 4.0 on the server. It is an automatic update, or can be manually downloaded here – http://download.microsoft.com/download/2/5/0/250db18d-30b9-4129-b2ce-282bc2f65c1f/WindowsSearch-KB940157-Srv2K3-x86-enu.exe
 
The Microsoft Search 4.0 product page can be found here – http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/desktopsearch/default.mspx
 
For SBS2008, there was no option to install this, as it was not supported. There is another similar product from Microsoft called Microsoft Search Server Express, which works for Windows 2008 servers. DO NOT USE THIS on SBS2008, as it will cause issues, particularly with Sharepoint.
 
The solution for SBS2008 was provided in a recent blog by the SBS team – http://blogs.technet.com/sbs/archive/2010/04/05/find-items-faster-with-windows-search-and-libraries.aspx
Turns out that it was right under our noses all the time, but not switched on.

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