Disable File Indexing In Windows | Speed Up Windows By Disabling Search Index

If you don't use Windows XP's built-in search often (like every day), disabling indexing can significantly speed up your PC. If you are looking for Disable File Indexing In windows vista / windows 7, follow this link to read my earlier post.

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Indexing Services is a small little program that uses large amounts of memory and can often make a computer endlessly loud and noisy.

This system process indexes and updates lists of all the files that are on your computer. It does this so that when you do a search for something on your computer, it will search faster by scanning the index lists. 

By default Windows XP indexes files on your hard drive and stores them in memory to speed up its' built-in search. But if you rarely use Windows search, turn off indexing to free up memory and CPU horsepower for the files and applications you actually do use.

Thus, if you don’t search your computer often, this system service is completely unnecessary. To disable do the following:

1. Click Start button
2. Select the Control Panel
3. Double-click Add/Remove Programs
4. Click the Add/Remove Window Components icon on the left side of the window
5. This may take a few seconds to load. Be patient.
6. Look for the “Indexing Services” component in the list
7. Uncheck the Indexing Services
8. Click Next
9. Click Finish

If you wish to turn off indexing, follow these step. 

To turn off indexing (to remove the index files):

1. Open up "My Computer."
2. Right-click on your hard drive (usually "C:") and choose "Properties."
3. Uncheck the box at the bottom that reads "Allow Indexing Service to..."
4. Click OK, and files will be removed from memory. This removal may take a few minutes to complete.

To disable the indexing service:

1. In the "Start" menu, choose "Run."
2. Type "services.msc" and press Enter.
3. Scroll-down to "Indexing Service" and double-click it.
4. If the service status is "Running", then stop it by pressing the "Stop" button.
5. To make sure this service doesn't run again, under "Startup Type:", choose "Disabled."

Windows search will still work if you perform these steps, but it will work more slowly than if indexing was enabled.