Speed Up Windows 7: Turn off Indexing if You Don’t Need it.

Did you know Windows constantly creates and indexes your data, and that this heavy chore can slow down your PC?

Actually, indexing is good if you have tons of files and you use the built-in Windows Search to find your data.  The indexing makes the searches quick and easy.

But what if you don’t have tons of files and don’t need to do searches to find your data?  Then you might as well reduce the activity of this feature, or disable it altogether.  The result will be a faster computer.

To modify or disable indexing, open the Indexing Options applet in the Control Panel.  Note that if you have your Control Panel set to “Category View”, you will not see it.  Change the view to “icons” (large or small), and you will see the Indexing Options applet.  Upon opening, you’ll see a window showing what locations are being indexed.  Click “Modify” and remove locations (folders, etc.) being indexed.  You might just choose to index only your Documents folder and nothing else, or choose nothing at all.  It’s up to you.  You can even choose what types of files are indexed as well.

If you do want to leave search indexing on, but find that it occasionally slows you down, you can stop its process when you need extra speed. Right-click on “Computer” either in the Start menu or on the desktop, then choose the “Manage” option.  Then double-click Services and Applications, then Services. Find the “Windows Search” item and double click on that.  From this properties dialog, choose “Stop”.  You can also choose the Startup type, setting it to Manual or Disabled.  For occasional use, set it to Manual and it will start indexing the next time you do a search.

Again, if you don’t have many files and you know exactly where you keep them, then disable it altogether and remove all locations.  If you have a very fast PC with for instance,  a Quad-Core processor and over 4GB or memory, this won’t make much of a difference.  Go ahead and leave it on, as you might enjoy using the search feature from time to time.

If you have any questions about this or want help tuning and optimizing your PC, we can help (but only if you live in Tucson, of course).  Our contact information is on the Saguaro PC Tech website.