system busy when idle

[dot]

Since upgrading to Vista, I have had problems with the system becoming
"busy" doing something when I leave it idle for long periods of time
(such as over night). I will hear a lot of disk activity, and if I try
to go over and use the system, it is very "slow" (poor performance).

I have tried running Task Manager and Performance Monitor (PerfMon) when
this is happening, and CPU utilization seemed fairly low (10 percent or
less). The are no applications running, other than those I didn't close
when I left the system. I also didn't notice any processes other than
the standard system processes/services.

My best guess is that the File Indexer service is getting busy searching
through folders. (Though I have no idea how it could get so busy doing
this.) I did notice a lot of references to "Indexing" in the disk
monitor within PerfMon.

This problem is ANNOYING because if I walk over to the computer in the
morning to check my email, the system is sometimes so busy that it
sluggish/non responsive for a long time (until what ever the system is
doing finishes up / goes away).

I did not have these problems with XP. Anyone have any idea what I can
do to minimize this?

 

[thecreator]

Hi Dot,

Is your copy of Windows Vista on a clean partition or did you install it
overtop an existing operating system? Always install a new operating system
on a clean partition, because some drivers installed for the previous
operating system, will cause problems in Vista.

With that said, and Vista on a clean partition, what you can be seeing
is Vista creating a System Checkpoint for Windows System Restore, or the
operating system, indexing the File System at Idle. Makes for faster
searching. Also, the Anti-Spyware or Anti-Virus can be running as well as
Windows Defender which comes in Vista.

 

[Rick Rogers]

Hi,

It most likely is as you guessed, the indexing service. This generally slows
down considerably after a few days.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

 

[Jeffrey Sparks]

The indexing service should slow it activity way down within a few seconds
after you move your mouse or basically start to use your system. It goes
back to work after so many minute (15 I think) of inactivity. Once it's
done it shouldn't run nearly as much unless your are constantly adding a
tremendous number of documents constantly.

The indexing service not only indexes documents but programs and outlook
data as well. If you click on the windows key and start typing it starts
searching immediately and will list programs, documents, email and
tasks/activities. As you continue to type it narrows down your search.
Quite useful!