Disable File Indexing on Windows XP
One of Windows XP's allegedly useful features is the file indexing service. This extracts information from documents and other files on your hard drive and creates a "searchable keyword index", which is used to make searching for files more efficient. The idea is that the user can search for a word, phrase, or property inside a document, should they have hundreds or thousands of documents and not know the file name of the document they want.
While this sounds ideal for very large file systems (e.g. corporate systems), it is a major resource hog and is highly unnecessary for home users, so many find it ideal to disable file indexing.
Steps
- Double click on My Computer, located on the Desktop.
- Right click on the C: drive.
- Select Properties. You should see a window that resembles the following:
- Uncheck the box next to Allow Indexing Service to index this disk for fast file searching. A window will pop up asking where to apply the changes.
- Select the bullet next to Apply changes to C:\, subfolders and files, and press OK.
Tips
- If any warning/error messages appear (e.g."Access is denied"), click the Ignore All button. Don't worry.
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