is it ok to turn off Windows Indexing Service?

M

mista ting

Gawd
Joined
Apr 13, 2006
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its really annoying every time vista starts it refreshes indexing in the processes capping my hard drive slowing the entire start up.....is it ok to disable it? would it cause any conflicting or problems? how do i disable it?

thanks
 
It's fine, it'll just slow down searches. I've been running over a year with it off. Check Google for directions.
 
mista ting said:
its really annoying every time vista starts it refreshes indexing in the processes capping my hard drive slowing the entire start up.....is it ok to disable it? would it cause any conflicting or problems? how do i disable it?

thanks
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That's not indexing, that's SuperFetch. The index only updates when files change.

Disabling Indexing and SuperFetch does absolutely nothing but lower performance.
 
bigdogchris said:
That's not indexing, that's SuperFetch. The index only updates when files change.

Disabling Indexing and SuperFetch does absolutely nothing but lower performance.
Click to expand...

Disabling Indexing has zero affect on performance. SuperFetch, maybe. Indexing, no.
 
I run a pretty standard WD 7200rpm 160GB hard drive as my main drive, and I have never noticed any slowdown with all those services on. My feeling is that it is something else bottlenecking you. Also, those services are realy helpful to have on, don't you want to be able to hit the windows key and just start typing and have windows instantly find what you're looking for? And i don't know If i could live without superfetch, it makes apps open really fast.
 
criccio said:
... Also, those services are realy helpful to have on, don't you want to be able to hit the windows key and just start typing and have windows instantly find what you're looking for? And i don't know If i could live without superfetch, it makes apps open really fast.
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No. I already know where my files are (properly maintained file-structure, yay), so it's a source of unnecessary wear on the drive, noise, and potential (but admittedly unlikely) slowdown and nothing more for me.
 
silent-circuit said:
No. I already know where my files are (properly maintained file-structure, yay), so it's a source of unnecessary wear on the drive, noise, and potential (but admittedly unlikely) slowdown and nothing more for me.
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it has nothing to do with knowing where things are..


try it, you'll be amazed at how much easier it is to just Hit Windows Key and type in the first 3 or 5 letters of a shortcut/program you want to run.. it instantly finds it, then hit enter and Run it.. (or arrow down 1 or 2 times)..

infact once the indexing is done its no more hard drive activity than if you have indexing turned off..

in old windows land it was useless.. in vista it's almost one of its greatest stengths..
 
bigdogchris said:
Lowers searching performance.
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...which I /clearly/ stated in my original post. Really, find something else more worthwhile to argue about. It makes searching slower, but I don't count that as part of OS "performance". Applications run just as well. Folders open just as quickly. Searching still works, it just takes longer. If you turn off the search indexing service and don't think it'll affect searching, you have no business here.
 
H-street said:
it has nothing to do with knowing where things are..
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This!

The drive activity at startup is unlikely to be indexing, and in any case there's no need to wait till it stops to start using the system. With the exception of Network Discovery and thus internet access, Vista arrives at a usable desktop rather quicker than XP did.


And I'd advise leaving indexing enabled. It ain't about 'finding' your stuff. Instead it's about making access to your stuff quicker. A tap on the Windows key, a few characters typed into the search box there (cursor is already blinking in the thing awaiting input) and then clicking on the relevent entry is the quickest way to 'navigate' to what you want that there is.
 
silent-circuit said:
...which I /clearly/ stated in my original post. Really, find something else more worthwhile to argue about. It makes searching slower, but I don't count that as part of OS "performance". Applications run just as well. Folders open just as quickly. Searching still works, it just takes longer. If you turn off the search indexing service and don't think it'll affect searching, you have no business here.
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And if there was a reason, that held any amount of weight, to turn it off, then I wouldn't have pointed that out again. There isn't.
 
H-street said:
try it, you'll be amazed at how much easier it is to just Hit Windows Key and type in the first 3 or 5 letters of a shortcut/program you want to run.. it instantly finds it, then hit enter and Run it.. (or arrow down 1 or 2 times)..
Click to expand...

Agreed, that's the real reason to have it on. Being able to search my documents instantly too is nice, but I use this pretty much all the time - nearly never drill down into folders now that I can find any program with a few keypresses.

The Windows Search service (as it's now called) only reads files in specific locations by default anyway, rather than the whole hard drive, so the indexing it has to do is fairly limited. I agree it's not likely to be the source of the slowdowns. I do find Vista slow from restart to running at "full speed", but I've not been in the habit of regularly rebooting since XP - I hibernate/sleep.
 
With the exception of some really low ball configurations, I have't seen an issue with indexing running. It definately helps more than it hurts (if there is any hurt at all). I love the convenience. I think that if people weren't made aware of the fact that there was an indexing service running, they wouldn't know it was there to begin with and would just be amazed at how fast they can find things on the computer.

Don't sweat it, it's not the reason why your machine is booting up slowly, it's definately not a boot process.
 
As it has been stated, disable it if you're organized/know where all your stuff is/ never use search. That said, it doesn't take that much of a hit on performance (especially on modern hardware) than we all fear. I know plenty of people who either find the search function useful enough or are just so disorganized that the performance hit is completely justifiable for the benefits of search. I always vLite it out though because I keep all my stuff ridiculously organized on a secondary HDD.
 
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