Vista Indexing

Hello all,

I know that many tweak threads here and elsewhere recommend disabling the Indexing service...I have done this, but lately I've been looking into apps such as Launchy (text-based launching programs).

The Vista Start search seems much easier for me to use, not really interested in all the bells and whistles of many launchers.

What I'm wondering is if the Indexing service will really "slow" my system down, if I were to use it (Vista Start search) instead of a 3rd party App.

Les, or Scud, or whoever, feel free to pipe in on this one.

Thanks

 

I have disabled indexing, but still use the Start Search to launch programs. For example, if I type "word" into the search bar, it almost instantly returns "Microsoft Word" as a result so I can click it and launch the app.

Disabling indexing won't really slow the searching for applications installed on your system, but it will take longer to find individual files in your personal folders. The indexing services often results in disk thrashing and slower performance at times (not all the time). This slowdown typically happens when it is updating the index.

I have been running vista for 9 months now without the indexing service running, and I still use the Start Search extensively for launching apps.

 

You should give Launchy a whirl. It doesn't really have many bells and whistles, just simple and powerful. I use the Start Menu for stuff I have in the Start Menu, and I use Launchy for opening all my games, pictures, videos, music (playlists), zip files, text files, HTML documents, etc.

I have Vista Indexing turned off, BTW.

 

I use coppernicus.

 

disable indexing asap.

 

Indexing trashes your hard drive.

 

No, it t hrashes a drive, but I highly doubt it will trash one.

 

It doesn't trash or thrash since I installed SP1.

Anyway, in Control Panel > Sys & Maint > Indexing Options, you can configure where you want it to index. If you want it to only index the start menu, you can do that.

 

It is still unneccesary. I know where my files are and I do not need Windows to keep track of them for me.

 

Well, good for you... but some of us like to be able to find our programs using a text search.

 

And you still can on Vista, without indexing everything like Vista wants to do out of the gate.

 

I know it thrashes instead of trashes, but it always sounds like it's trashing it, and that is sufficiently irritating for me to turn it off.

But I'm glad SP1 fixed that.

 

Keep the indexing if you`re doing a lot of searching have a ton of things on your hdd, if not,disable it and use Launchy. It`s simple and effective.

 

How is launchy any different from configuring Vista to index just your start menu programs?

 

http://www.launchy.net/
and

http://sourceforge.net/projects/launchy

 

You can open websites with launch, it has a built-in calculator, opens pictures, apps, zip files, text files, videos, music, playlists, etc.

If I want to open the GIMP, I click on my Quick Launch icon, but if I want to open a project I've been working on in GIMP, I can just type part of the name of the project in Launchy, and VIOLA!

 

Swarmer, how do I disable indexing?

 

Hey Pix, have you tried any Launchy Alternatives, and are you running the latest version?

 

See this post

 

Thanks, AKA.

 

I do not think you want to completely disable indexing; rather, you may want to restrict what it indexes.

 

Also, in Windows Explorer, Right-click on your drive(s), Select Properties, Go to the General Tab, Uncheck the box at the bottom entitled Index this Drive For Faster Searching.

 

No.

Yes.

 

Wouldn't that completely disable indexing?

 

I leave Indexing on, and have never found slowdown. I also use mylaptop for work and create a lot of files, not all that be be so cleanly organized in files, so indexing has helped me a lot.

 

Interestingly enough, no, it does not.

 

Then I'll do it. Once again, I thank you.

By the way, the speed difference really is noticeable. My system has picked up immensely.

 

Then what do you think about the second part outlined in the Tips and Tweaks Guide thread:

"1. Click on start/run and type in 'MSConfig' and hit ok;
2. Click on Services tab and find Windows Search
3. Uncheck/Apply and Ok...Your done!!!"

Would you recommend doing that as well?

 

Nope, I would not.

 

The only time Indexing "thrashes" the drive is when you initially start using Vista. At that time it goes through all of your documents and creates a full text search index. After that the only time it needs to do any indexing is when files are added or changed. So the notion that turning off indexing will magically affect the machines performance is ridiculous at best. Once the initial index is created, the impact of indexing is very minimal, unless you happen to import a bunch of documents onto your system. Then you might notice some effect.

As was suggested earlier, to me the ideal situation is to leave indexing on but limit the folders you want it to index. For example there is no need for me to index my code source directories, so they are excluded.

And no matter how meticulous I am about putting documents in folders, I can't possibly remember every document where I mentioned the phrase "BMPN process models". Let's see, was it in a white paper I wrote for client A, or one for client b, or was there a reference in a research paper I downloaded from some vendors site? That is the sort of thing indexing is useful for. I think Microsoft made a very stupid mistake by calling it "indexing" in the first place. If it had been more appropriately titled "full text search", folks would understand its real benefits and the rationale behind limiting the places it "indexes". My $.02 YMMV.

Gary

 

I have "Indexing" enabled and haven't noticed any disk thrashing.

 

I have indexing totally disabled, and my HD thrashes for a couple of minutes when Vista starts. I have 3GB an a T8100 processor.

 

That's SuperFetch pre-loading files and is normal from what I've experienced.

 

You're right. I disabled it, and now my disk access is no longer constant. I haven't noticed degrade in performance either. If anything, things might be loading faster.

 

I posted the same thing awhile back but no one believed me. All of the responses I got was but yeah here's a guy from MS who was responsible for Superfetch who said this is why you should leave it turned on.

When I turned it off I had ZERO disk thrashing and the system got more responsive. Keep in mind I have 4GB of memory installed. The OS just loaded into memory what it was using rather than trying to think ahead. Never once did I have any programs crash or any weird stuff.

After doing a fresh install I listened to the masses and left it on. I'm now considering turning it off again since you once again reminded me as to how useless this feature really is.

 

Perhaps it's useful with less RAM, but I have 3GB and my system is running much better without it. My HD is silent most of the time now.

 

Shhhh don't tell anyone or they might give you the link to the video of the poor MS guy who spent years designing this gem.

 

Actually it's the other way around, Superfetch works better with more RAM. Any system with under 3 GB of RAM, Superfetch is not good for them.

By the way Rodknee, Superfetch doesn't "thrash" the HDD, it's just reading and loading files to RAM, there is no writing on the HDD.

The idea of Superfetch is to use less HDD afterward and use all of your RAM instead, since RAM is much faster than your HDD. Unused RAM sitting there is a waste of RAM. Plus, Superfetch doesn't "lock" the RAM, any other programs need it can take it.

 

I don't know what to say but my system got quicker with no thrasing after shutting off both the Superfetch and Readyboost services and the system deosn't seem to run as warm. So I can confirm what Lou is saying is true.

 

I don't think your temperature has anything to do with Superfetch, since Superfetch normally do its work at the beginning. Once it got everything loaded, Superfetch will stop. You can actually monitor what Superfetch is doing when your system is loading, you can see Supertech is mostly reading and loading files to memory.

Anyway, it doesn't matter. Superfetch is not for everyone, some can benefit from it and some don't. It depends on your usage pattern too. Superfetch does need some time to learn your pattern to become better though.

 

If Superfetch would just do its thing at startup, it wouldn't bother me so much. But it's almost constant disk access going on, with it turned on.

 

Strange, I tested Superfetch on a few machines and they all would stop after a few minutes after booting. After a while when Superfetch learned your pattern, it would load the same/similar size of files into cache/memory. You can actually watch your cache size builds up in Task Manager, every time it will stop at the same/similar cache size reached.

 

I think it does because I usually bring up task manager and check the performance tab or look at resource monitor at startup or when the drive starts thrashing. When the drive is doing it's thing because of superfetch I watch as the CPU load increases. That's when the fans usually come on. Once everything calms down the fans drop back into low speed mode.

 

I had a similar problem Lou. I would get constant thrashing as I watched superfetch load and unload anywhere form 1-2.5GB at a time. It was almost constant and very disturbing as the drive was thrashing. That's when I decided to turn it all off. At that point I noticed NO system performance issues infact I noticed a very slight bump in performance.

 

You might read this

 

Yup i've read that before and it was another reason why I turned it off. It makes little to no difference.

 

Mine would stop after a few minutes too, but would start again at some point. This pattern just keeps repeating itself. With it turned off, my HD light hardly comes on anymore.

 

You might also want to read this and this, too

 

Screw Launchy. Start++ is the way to go.

By the way, the vista start menu does ALL this already. well except the built in calculator. Plus the start menu will search your Outlook files including Email, RSS feeds, and calender appointments.

It is a redundant program. If you want real start menu power, look above. Start++. Launch programs with Admin approval, look up stuff on wikipedia, make a playlist made up of a single artist, etc. In fact, you can customize it to do just about anything.

http://brandontools.com/

 

What a marketing joke Superfetch and Readyboost are. Actually the joke is on us.

With both Readyboost and Superfetch on. From a cold start to Desktop
48 seconds

With both Readyboost and Superfetch off from a cold start to Desktop
43 seconds

It's now officially off for good !