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I found this in a few different places around the 'net - hopefully it's helpful:

Turn Off Indexing to Speed Up XP

Windows XP keeps a record of all files on the hard disk so when you do a search on the hard drive it is faster. There is a downside to this 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 on your hard drive then you may want to turn this feature off:

  • Open My Computer.
  • Right-click your hard drive icon and select Properties.
  • At the bottom of the window you'll see "Allow indexing service to index this disk for faster searches," uncheck this and click ok.
  • A new window will pop up and select Apply to all folders and subfolders.

It will take a minute or two for the changes to take affect but then you should enjoy slightly faster performance.

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by jerryz720

Dani AI

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Good practical tip from — turning off the indexer is a low-risk tweak that can help certain XP boxes, but it is a tradeoff worth understanding.

On which machines you will see the biggest benefit: older systems with a single, slow mechanical disk, low RAM, or lots of small files tend to suffer most from the indexer's background random I/O. If the machine is frequently busy with disk activity even when you are not searching, the indexer is a likely suspect. Conversely, systems with plenty of RAM or an SSD will notice little penalty from indexing.

How to narrow the cause without permanent changes: watch disk and CPU activity in Task Manager while the system is idle and while you do typical file operations. If the indexing service is active and disk I/O stays high, try stopping the service temporarily and compare responsiveness — the test is reversible. Also check scheduled scans from antivirus tools; they can look like indexing and produce similar slowdowns.

If you want search convenience without a full-time performance hit, consider compromises rather than a full shutdown: keep an index but exclude large folders (Downloads, temp, backups), drop content indexing for noncritical file types, or use the finer controls that Windows Desktop Search provides if installed. For many users, limiting what gets indexed yields the best balance of speed and useful search results.

Final notes: if you rely on Outlook or do frequent content searches, leaving some form of indexing enabled is usually worth it. For long-term improvement, hardware changes (more RAM, switching to an SSD) deliver far larger, more consistent gains than most software tweaks. When testing multiple recommendations from 's collection, prioritize disk-related tweaks first, then startup and services.

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Member Avatar for jack3

I have just found another site with some useful speed tweaks all displayed on one page for quick access.
It is the most useful page for tweaks I have come across.
It includes the tweak you posted about turning off indexing service.

It covers 18 Windows XP Speed Tweaks.

They include:

1. Remove/Replace Windows Background image
2. Edit Boot.ini to disable GUI boot
3. Disk Cleanup
4. Disk Defragmenter
5. Visual Performance
6. Windows Explorer Performance
7. Applications Autorunning on Startup
8. Cleaning the Windows Registry
9. Remove viruses, trojans and spyware
10. Apply Windows updates
11. Disable performance counters
12. Optimize your internet connection
13. Remove windows fonts
14. Disabling indexing service
15. Turning off system restore
16. Speed up boot sequence
17. Disable unnecessary services
18. Setting manual IP addresses

Member Avatar for The Dude

Thank you for your input!!

Welcome to Daniweb :)

Member Avatar for jerryz720

good stuff

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