Windows Index Service help

Coke Robot · 28 May 2011

Hey,

I've been wondering whether or not if I should re-enable the Index service in Windows. I usually always disable it since I do know it can kill some system resource and blast the processor to the point where you can't do anything for a couple minutes or so.

But then now since I have 500 gigs of data and I'm probably expecting to upgrade to 4 TB, is it worth it to have the indexing service running? I've had some issues where I'm trying to open up an archive file and it takes about a minute or two to even open up the archive file. During that time, there's a lot of hard drive activity occurring.

I do actually want to know if the index service only indexes files so when you actually do a search in Windows Explorer, it only finds those files you searched for. Or does it also index files on the hard drive so Windows can access them faster?

Thanks.

Airbot · 28 May 2011

Coke Robot said:

and blast the processor to the point where you can't do anything for a couple minutes or so.

Hmm, don't know about that one. Maybe if I had a crappy processor.
I would always just keep indexing on, unless I'm using a system that is installed on a SSD, then I disable it.

Could always read up on this.

Index - Add or Remove File Types
Index Location - Change
Index Locations - Add or Remove

Windows Search - Configure and Use
Search - Have More Accurate Search Results
Search in Windows 7
Search Inside Certain File Types with Indexing Disabled

DustSailor · 28 May 2011

Don't know about harddrives, most harddrives are fine and can handle indexing, never seen a HDD so bad that it couldn't (can slow it down, but never too bad); but if your processor is really slow, then so will your searches be. Like airbot posted (he beat me to it), you can fix up the indexing via those links and take out any searches that you don't want happening. that will speed it up. the lower number of indexed files, the faster it will be. You can also move the index to a faster harddrive (if you ever get an SSD, those things are great). You can also select any harddrives (if you have multiple) that you don't want indexed and uncheck the box that says to index files on the harddrive (accessed via computer).

Coke Robot · 28 May 2011

Airbot said:

Coke Robot said:

and blast the processor to the point where you can't do anything for a couple minutes or so.

Hmm, don't know about that one. Maybe if I had a crappy processor.
I would always just keep indexing on, unless I'm using a system that is installed on a SSD, then I disable it.

Could always read up on this.

Index - Add or Remove File Types
Index Location - Change
Index Locations - Add or Remove

Windows Search - Configure and Use
Search - Have More Accurate Search Results
Search in Windows 7
Search Inside Certain File Types with Indexing Disabled

I did have a crappy processor a while back, it was a P4 at 2.8ghz. But it ran Windows 7 RC quite well shockingly enough.

Coke Robot · 28 May 2011

Airbot said:

Coke Robot said:

and blast the processor to the point where you can't do anything for a couple minutes or so.

Hmm, don't know about that one. Maybe if I had a crappy processor.
I would always just keep indexing on, unless I'm using a system that is installed on a SSD, then I disable it.

Could always read up on this.

Index - Add or Remove File Types
Index Location - Change
Index Locations - Add or Remove

Windows Search - Configure and Use
Search - Have More Accurate Search Results
Search in Windows 7
Search Inside Certain File Types with Indexing Disabled

This actually was kind of helpful, thanks!

I'm wondering if it's worth re-enabling the service because I've done some research on this and basically it can take up system resource to index new files and Windows does that when it's idle. It did mess with my old pentium processor a while back but it seems like it's probably worth it then considering I have now a dual core athlon?

DustSailor · 29 May 2011

Its worth it if you keep up with it. So long as you make sure it isn't indexing too mach, just perhaps a couple hundred files (it will say so at the top), then you should be fine. It makes it a whole lot easier so you can type in commands instead of searching for the file. You can uncheck everything and only index a few files that you really want, but its all up to you. I like being able to type in "admin tools" and not have to search for it.