Disable indexing service
Turn off indexing service to speed up Windows XP. Windows XP keeps a record of all the files on the hard disk so when you do a search on the hard drive it is faster. The indexing service processes information from documents and other files on the hard drive and creates a searchable keyword index database and update lists of all the files that are on the computer, so that when the user searches for something, the system will search faster by scanning the previously generated indexed lists. There is a downside of this indexing and because the computer has to index all files, it will slow down normal file commands like open, close, etc. If you do not do a whole lot of searches and you don’t have tens of thousands of documents on your hard drive then you may want to turn this feature off. Windows XP's built-in search functionality can still perform searches without the indexing service, but this takes longer. The Windows has to open each file at the time of the request to help find what the user is looking for.
See also Windows XP services about Indexing service.
- Click Start, click Control Panel, click Add or Remove Programs.
- In the Add or Remove Programs click Add/Remove Windows Components.
- Uncheck "Indexing Service"
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