How to disable Vista indexing

[Guest]

Anyone,
I never use the Vista File Indexing service, plus it causes much hard drive
thrashing. Which is the best way to disable it permanently, and will this
cause any future "problems" with my excellent-running system? Thanks.
EW

 

[Justin]

Anyone,
I never use the Vista File Indexing service, plus it causes much hard
drive
thrashing. Which is the best way to disable it permanently, and will this
cause any future "problems" with my excellent-running system? Thanks.
EW

There are three ways to handle this:

1. Navigate to Control Panel, choose “Uninstall a Program†under “Programsâ€
and then click on “Turn Windows features on or off“. There you can disable
the Indexing Service.

2. It is also possible to disable indexing for a certain drive or enable it
only for selected folders. You can do this by changing the Properties of a
drive or folder (right click on drive letter in Windows Explorer).

3. The fasted way is to simply disable the Windows Search service. Run
Services (just type “Services†at the Start Search bar), right click on the
Windows Search service and select “Propertiesâ€. Then choose “Disabled†for
the start type. Afterwards, you have to stop this service by right clicking
on it and selecting “Stopâ€.


Doing this will not cause any problems. However, I would suggest trying to
fix whatever problem you have instead of just turning it off. How long as
your installation been up and running?

 

[Guest]

Justin,
Thanks for the fine reply. I've been using Vista on my new Dell XPS 410 for
about two weeks. It is EXCELLENT: not one problem or hangup. I simply want
to turn off Indexing to save I/O on the hard drive. It needs love too, and I
hardly ever use indexing or searches. I notice that the drive works hard at
indexing. Perhaps AFTER indexing the drive completely, the indexing will
slow to a crawl -- right? If that's so, I won't disable. I really need your
opinion, so let me have it! And if disabling indexing will cause the drive
to search out EVERY file and change its attributes, then what's the point of
disabling: the drive gets melted anyway! Please comment.
EW

 

[Andre Da Costa[ActiveWin]]

If its a computer that came preinstalled with Vista or a fresh upgrade or
install, it might run groggy for a few days, but is usually as a result of
the Indexing service, performance will eventually improve and you won't
notice any problems. Search is probably one of the best features of Vista
and comes in really handy when you need it. You can easily customize it,
click Start > type Indexing Options > hit enter. Click the "Modify" button >
click "Show All Locations" click continue on UAC dialog.

Under Change selected Locations you can check and uncheck the various
locations for indexing.

 

[Justin]

If its a computer that came preinstalled with Vista or a fresh upgrade or
install, it might run groggy for a few days, but is usually as a result of
the Indexing service, performance will eventually improve and you won't
notice any problems. Search is probably one of the best features of Vista
and comes in really handy when you need it. You can easily customize it,
click Start > type Indexing Options > hit enter. Click the "Modify" button

In addition to that you do not have to worry about your drive(s). Even if
you had constant read/writes to the drive 24/7 it would still last for many
years.

The index service will in no way hurt your drive.

However, if it does cause your system to constantly run slow then something
is wrong and it should be turned off to see if that helps the problem. If
it does then we would need to figure out what's wrong.

 

[Steve Thackery]

Mine settled down after a few days. Now you wouldn't know the indexing is
running. Don't forget there are other reasons for disk activity. Every
week it defrags automatically; every so often it shuffles the files around
on the disk to improve the boot-up speed; and every so often it preloads the
RAM with files it's expecting you to use.

As Justin says, accessing your drive does not shorten its life. Read up on
Google's experiences - they get through more hard drives than anyone, and
have found no correlation between service life and workload.

By the way, there is an important difference between indexing and indexing!
The old XP Indexing service is still present in Vista, for compatibility
reasons. This is not the same thing as the new indexing and search facility
in Vista. Make sure you know just what is being switched off.

Steve

 

[watercress_soup]

you could also try rebuilding. although i have no experience of this and
will take some time. might sort the problem out. i think it would be best to
leave it on.

steve

 

[Guest]

Thanks Justin, Steve, and Andre.........

I value your opinions, and I probably may leave the indexing service on.
However, as I originally requested, how is disabling the service done?? I
understand there may be several ways to do it (Ctrl Panel/Admin
Svcs/Services.....?). And as I said before, I'm hoping that disabling the
service will not cause the drive to change attributes on ALL files (7846
billion?) individually -- this would just add to my paranoia about the hard
drive. Thanks again.
EW

 

[Justin]

Thanks Justin, Steve, and Andre.........

I value your opinions, and I probably may leave the indexing service on.
However, as I originally requested, how is disabling the service done?? I
understand there may be several ways to do it (Ctrl Panel/Admin
Svcs/Services.....?). And as I said before, I'm hoping that disabling the
service will not cause the drive to change attributes on ALL files (7846
billion?) individually -- this would just add to my paranoia about the
hard
drive. Thanks again.
EW

???

My first reply to you shows three different ways to turn the service off.
Here it is again. Also, you do not have to worry about file attributes.

There are three ways to handle this:

1. Navigate to Control Panel, choose “Uninstall a Program†under “Programsâ€
and then click on “Turn Windows features on or off“. There you can disable
the Indexing Service.

2. Forget this one if you just want it turned off.

3. The fasted way is to simply disable the Windows Search service. Run
Services (just type “Services†at the Start Search bar), right click on the
Windows Search service and select “Propertiesâ€. Then choose “Disabled†for
the start type. Afterwards, you have to stop this service by right clicking
on it and selecting “Stopâ€.

 

[Dave Wood [MS]]

I don't think option 1 will work. The indexing service mentioned in Programs
is the legacy Indexing Service from XP {disabled by default}, not the Vista
Windows Search Service {wsearch}. You need to use the Services application
and disable the "Windows Search Service".

 

[Justin]

Ah, ok then. #3 only. Thanks Dave.

I don't think option 1 will work. The indexing service mentioned in
Programs is the legacy Indexing Service from XP {disabled by default}, not
the Vista Windows Search Service {wsearch}. You need to use the Services
application and disable the "Windows Search Service".