How To Easily Turn Indexing Off For An Immediate XP Performance Boost
You just bought a new image-editing program and you're getting anxious to try it on your XP computer. The installation goes smoothly and you read all the tutorials. Now you're ready to try it out. However, less than five minutes into your image editing, the program starts to freeze up. What do you do? Well, you have a variety of options: suffer through it, call tech support, take it back for a refund, or trade it for a different program. Of course, there's one easy trick that can help your XP machine immediately. The trick: turn indexing off.
The Windows Indexing Service, in case you're wondering, is responsible for indexing the properties and even contents of files on your hard disk drive, as well as any shared drives on your network. It lets you swiftly access files on remote and local machines. To simplify those terms, imagine being able to track every file in your filing cabinet and pull it up exactly when you need it. Of course, with the Windows Indexing Service, there is less digging around. As you can imagine, the process can be convenient, but in return, it's very intensive. This service was actually intended to run nonstop, without intervention, which can severely degrade your PC's performance.
If you hardly ever use this service or do not usually utilize the search option, then you can safely turn this feature off and just turn it backon when you know you're going to be doing some heavy searching. Once you do, you will definitely notice an improvement in your computer's performance as you'll have increased memory available for your programs and files, and your processor will have horespower for more important tasks.
Below are the steps to turn indexing off on a per-drive basis:
- Click on the Start button
- Point the mouse cursor to My Computer and click on it
- Choose the drive you don't want to index and right-click on it
- Click on Properties
- Uncheck the "Allow Indexing Service to index this disk for fast file searching" box at the bottom of the General tab
- Click on the Apply button
- Click the OK button
Note: At this point, the content of the drive you selected will then be eliminated from memory. The removal process might take a few minutes to finish.
To disable the Indexing Service, here's what you need to do:
- Click on Start --> Run
- In the Run box, type services.msc
- Click on OK
- In the Services window, scroll down and search for the Indexing Service then double-click on it
- If it happens to be in the Running state, click the Stop button
- Next, in the Startup type drop-down menu list, select "Disabled"
- Click on the Apply button
- Then click on the OK button
- Click the "X" in the upper-right hand corner of the Services window to close it out.
Make a mental note, though, that you can still utilize Windows search even if you turn indexing off. Keep in mind, though, that your searches will be a bit slower with the service turned off.
The cool thing is that you can always re-enable this service if you need it again.
Armed with the knowledge of how to turn indexing off, you can now pass this helpful tip on to friends and family that are experiencing the same issue.
Questions and Answers
Article Tags:
turn indexing off
,windows indexing service
,xp computer
,turn off indexing
,indexing service
I'm getting a STOP 0x00...error Blue Screen of Death in my Windows XP computer. How can I fix/repair or troubleshoot this blue screen? Well in this technology advanced world - graphics and visual effects are manipulated with the help of blue screen background, whether a weather channel forecast news or graphics rich science fiction movie
Windows 7 is Engineered for speed. Special attention has been given by the Windows 7 team for making Windows 7 faster than the previous operating systems. Windows 7 is much faster than Windows Vista, but even then most of us don't get satisfied with it.
There are some tweaks that you can apply to speed up the overall performance of your Windows XP operating system. You need to disable file indexing to make the Windows XP operating system perform better. There are many more and in this article we will discuss about them.
Are you having problems with your computer? Well then, you've landed at the right place. We offer efficient and dependable in-home computer repair. We are highly knowledgeable in Virus and Spyware Removal, as well as solving any other problems your computer may have. Additionally, we offer tune-ups to make your computer faster than when it was brand New! Contact us today to have our A+ Certified Technician with 10 Years of Experience come to your home. WE Are Now Windows 7 Certified. ...
Microsoft for personal computers. Successor to Windows XP, Windows Vista has an advanced security system than its predecessors and contains many new features
An in depth look at the new MMORPG from Blizzard Entertainment known as Diablo III, a long awaited release for Diablo fans.
Most small businesses take advantage of computer technology, and it certainly can make things a lot easier for everyone within the business when you do so properly. Unfortunately, there are also a number of different problems that can occur as a result of the technology that you are using.
Copying ipod to computer is easy. For more information on how read this article.
Online training software has found its place in almost all the offices and organizations. It can be used to train employees over the net
According to leading research carried out by Gartner, the number of PCs distributed throughout the first quarter of 2012 went up by 1.9% which was better than analysts predicted.
Tired of the same old computer system tweaks? Let a high-excellent registry cleaner optimize Windows services for you and make your life much less difficult.
Web browsing doesn't have to be a slow, painful process. If you want to to discover one of the easiest ways for how to speed up internet browsing, then follow these simple steps.
Discuss this Article
