Comments on: Save CPU and RAM: Disable the Indexing Service on Windows XP

By: ben2talk

ben2talk — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 01:37:35 +0000

I disabled just about all services in XP, it runs fast if you do a fresh install, then uninstall services, disable internet and networking, disable theming services too, set for max performance, and install your game. For everything else, just get http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download

With startup scripts disabled ( + – then type ‘msconfig’ ) it makes a decent games platform – no antivirus required if you use something like Clonezilla to back it up. Nice to know that Microsoft can never access my system to check up on my licensing or anything else.

By: j0eg0d

j0eg0d — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 19:46:04 +0000

For the NOOBS … click START – click RUN – type SERVICES.MSC and hit ENTER … remember not to DISABLE things you’re unsure of

By: Khurram

Khurram — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 19:28:55 +0000

very nice it works.
thankx
send more things like that..
thakx

By: Mick

Mick — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 12:00:04 +0000

Thank you Ed!
I couldn’t figure out why the Indexer kept running, I am glad I managed to find your post as googling didn’t show up much else.
Thanks again.

By: Ben

Ben — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 11:43:54 +0000

Right, just an update – after trying Ubuntu, no more attempts to disable the features, because they’re all good – not intrusive, very useful – perhaps helped by not having any malware problems, so not needing to have ‘firewall software’ or antivirus or any other crapware – just boot up and go. Great.

By: Ed

Ed — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 11:03:26 +0000

I’m running XP SP3, all latest updates;
I followed the instruction here, but found that I had already disabled the Indexing Service in “Services” some time ago. But I seem to have a “new” indexing service running, which it isn’t immediately obvious how to disable. I think it might have arrived with Office 2007, or perhaps it was part of a recent update. It is associated with a magnifying glass icon in the system tray.

I can “pause” it and I can “exit” the systray icon, but searchindexer.exe just keeps on running. I can change “Indexing options” in control panel, except there is no way to remove “My Documents” and if I remove “Microsoft Office outlook” then it just comes right back in again!

Using tools from “sysinternals” (download from microsoft technet) :-
Procmon shows that it is running incessantly, even though it claims that “Indexing speed is reduced due to user activity” – I’d rather it stopped and went away altogether. The trouble is that as it indexes, the files it touches are also scaneed by McAffee, further increasing the hit.
(I have no control over McAffee, installed and updated by corporate policy).

Using Procexp I can drill in to the process and right-click “properties” to find out all about it. It is “Microsoft windows search indexer” “C:\WINDOWS\system32\SearchIndexer.exe /Embedding” and the “Services” tab shows that it is called “WSearch” aka “Windows Search”. So I need to disable this one too, in it can be done right there from the procexp Properties / Services tab, or from Control Panel / Administrative Tools / Services / Windows Search

By: Ben

Ben — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 15:39:22 +0000

I’m just curious about indexing. I use Ubuntu, and love the fact that I can touch a couple of keys and instantly find and launch or open any software/files/emails simply by typing a few characters. I have amazing desktop eyecandy that XP couldn’t get close to, and I never noticed any RAM or CPU power being eaten up by the indexing (perhaps because it works partly by ‘watching’ directories rather than fresh building the index and working hard.

Isn’t indexing a good function? or does XP (even though it is more than 5 years old running on hardware developed in later years – rather than being an OS written for the hardware it’s running on) use up so much of your system resources that you should perhaps consider finding a better operating system?

By: helper

helper — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 04:25:36 +0000

In windows xp open control panel then Navigate to the Services console via Administrative Tools then you can disable some unwanted programs to SPEED UP your pc

By: Ben

Ben — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 07:30:57 +0000

Why do you need a more friendly description? Making changes from these forums that you don’t easily understand means you’ll end up with other symptoms and problems you can’t fix, leading to bigger headaches and end up doing a full reinstall and stick with original settings.

Vista isn’t slowed down noticeably by indexing, but you can easily notice the benefits whenever you try to find anything. It only uses CPU when you’re not using CPU.
This isn’t the same as with XP…

By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 18:23:50 +0000

My knowledge of Windows is just about average so I have no idea what you mean by “Navigate to the Services console via Administrative Tools.” Can someone give me a more n00b-friendly description? Cheers.