Stop Indexing Service in Windows Vista and Windows 7 and Windows XP

This article will help computer users who have found their computer getting slower and slower over the years. It’s when a person’s computer starts to slow down that they notice ads, like the example below, asking if their computer has slowed down, and then tries to sell them software to remove worms, viruses, spyware, malware, and to optimize your computer, whatever that means, but most often the problem is just a bloated Windows index database.

As the years go by, and you add more and more files and programs to your computer, it slows down incrementally until one day you start considering purchasing a newer faster computer, or start to become concerned that the computer has become infected.

Before buying a new computer, adding RAM, buying a faster hard drive, or purchasing software to clean infections that can waste time and slow your computer down even further, turn off the indexing service first and see if that fixes the problem, and restores your computer back to its old fast self.

The indexing service is supposed to speed up a search for files on the hard drive, which is rarely done by most people, so it’s not like there’s much to lose by turning indexing off.

This tutorial will walk you through turning off the indexing service in Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Window XP.

Windows Vista and Windows 7

Click the Windows Start button -> Control Panel -> then click Programs and Features.

Now click the link on the left for Turn Windows features on or off.

In the Windows Features window make sure the Indexing Service is unchecked. It probably is, because this is a remnant from Windows XP. If you need to uncheck it, click OK when done.

Now click the Windows Start button -> Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Services. Locate the Windows Search service, and double click on it.

On the General tab locate Startup type: and select Disabled from the pull-down menu. Click Apply, then the Stop button, and finally the OK button.

Next click the Windows Start button -> Computer -> then right click the C: drive -> then click Propterties

Un-check the box next to Index this drive for faster searching.

Choose Apply changes to drive C:’ only, and click OK. Repeat this for any external, or additional internal hard drives, you have installed. Windows indexing all drives by default, so you’ll need turn indexing off for each one.

Reboot your computer. After the computer finishes restarting click the Windows Start button -> Control Panel -> Indexing Options.

If the Windows Indexing Service is not longer running you’ll see the message Indexing is not runnig.

Now click the Windows Start button -> Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Services. Locate the Windows Search service, and make sure it says Disabled.

Windows XP

• Open “Control Panel”, select “Administrator Tools”, and open Services applet. Alternatively, type services.msc in the Rn text box from Start menu, and then hit Enter.
• Scroll down and locate Indexing Service service, and then double click on it.
• Click on Stop button to immediately stop the indexing service if the service status shows “Running.
• Under the “Startup Type”, select Disabled to permanently disable the indexing service so that it won’t run again.
• Click OK.

If the indexing service was slowing down your computer you should now notice a speed improvement.