Disable Indexing

[SCVic]

Hey Ya'll,

I've been working on an uA cd. I have used some tweaks from the site. One thing I'm having some trouble with is the Disabling Index Service.

True this disables the SERVICE (under the mmc) but does not disable (or remove the checkmark) from the option on the drive properties window. (right click on local disk; left click properties.... Allow indexing service for fast file search)

How is this done? I cannot locate the correct key to modify. I've even tried taking snapshots of the reg before and after I disable this manually and to be honest I haven't been able to find a worthy registry comparison tool to locate what has changed.

[SiMoNsAyS]

i don't know about any1 who has been sucessfull unchecking it... i personally delete completely the service using nlite and the box is still checked after boot.

i think the atributes for all the files are defined during setup process so i doubt any regkey can solve the issue, i think is something deeper during windows setup...

[tguy]

Try adding INDEXSRV_SYSTEM=OFF to the [Components] section of your unattend answer file.

Works for me.

[SiMoNsAyS]

that would only disable indexing service, not the check box; it also won't work on xp, it appears to only take effect on w2k3, at least for me.

[SCVic]

@ Simonsays I've used nlite to remove the service from the management console but like you, it still doesn't uncheck the option on drive properties. I really don't want to write MS because it takes 5 emails to actually get your question answered and that's about as annoying as it gets.

[gtaylor]

To the best of my knowledge unchecking the "Allow Indexing Service to index this disk for fast file searching" checkbox simply sets the "Not Indexed" attribute in the file system (similar to setting the read-only attribute for example).

There is no performance benefit from unchecking this checkbox unless the Indexing Service is running. If you are not using the indexing service then the checkbox is irrelevent.

If you wanted to waste your time unchecking this box then try the following utility:

http://www.febooti.com/products/filetweak/

[durex]

gtaylor is absolutely correct.. its just like if you were to set the 'archive' attribute. it only flags it for other services if you run them. in the archive attributes case it flags the file if you use windows back and in the index case it simply flags it if you run windows indexing.

[SiMoNsAyS]

i knew about the attribute, is just that i'm a bit picky with those things and i want my setup as perfect as i can

thanks for your suggestions, i'll try filetweak

[SCVic]

True, you all have valid points but after my install is complete and ready to go, I can go to the drive properties, uncheck the 'Allow' checkbox and the system goes through it's process of clearing out the database of indexed files. This 'service' does affect performance. I run a P4 3.0Ghz system with 1GB of ram bla bla bla and I used to have to wait upwards of 25 seconds for a dialog box to open up because the so-called 'fast file search' utility was doing it's thing. Leaving that option checked still takes up room on your hard drive. Why should I be content to let that file grow and grow? It really doesn't do what MS tries to 'sell' it as. I'm in full agreeance with Simon....I want my install to be perfect and right now it's not. The less I have to do after an install the better.

Also, the Index_service = Off option in winnt.sif does work on XP, but again it only disables the service.

I even went so far as to purchase an XP registry book hoping to find something in there. I'd have better luck if I was playing the lottery 5 times a day.

[gtaylor]

If you have disabled the Indexing Service then there shouldn't be anything indexing your hard disk/s. Perhaps the indexing service wasn't correctly disabled?

I just had another thought. What version of Microsoft Office was/is running on your computer. Versions of Office prior to XP had an indexing tool called Findfast which was enabled by default. Perhaps this is what is/was indexing your disk.

Which dialog were you waiting 25 seconds for?

[ashmedai]

Basically you're flipping a wall switch with when the power to the building is off - it's meaningless. It still takes time to do though, because you're telling the computer to flip thousands of switches.