Disable Indexing in Windows 10 (Tutorial)

How to Disable Indexing in Windows 10: Windows has a special built-in feature for searching files or folders which is commonly known as Windows Search. Starting from Windows Vista OS and all other modern Windows OS has significantly improved the search algorithm which not only makes the searching process faster but also users can effortlessly search for roughly all sort of files, images, videos, documents, emails as well as contacts.

It helps to search for files on your system very fast but it has a problem during the search as other processes might experience a bit of slowness when Windows indexes the files or folders. But there are a few steps that you can opt to mitigate such problems. If you turn off the indexing on your hard-drives, it is a very straightforward method for boosting your PC performance. Before going into the aspect and steps of disabling the search index feature in your system, let us first understand the prime reasons why one has to disable indexing or when one should leave the feature enabled.

There are on the whole 3 primary scenarios that you will go through when you are planning to enable or disable the indexing. These key points will make you realize easily whether you are supposed to enable or disable this feature:

If you have a fast CPU power (with processors like i5 or i7 – latest generation) + a regular sized hard drive, then you can keep indexing on.
The CPU performance is slow + and type of hard drive is old, then it is recommended turn off indexing.
Any sort of CPU + SSD drive, then it is again recommended not to enable indexing.

How to Disable Indexing in Windows 10

Make sure to create a restore point just in case something goes wrong.

So, your indexing needs to be done essentially based on the type of CPU as well as the type of hard drive you are using. It is recommended not to enable indexing feature if you have an SSD hard drive and/or when you have a low performing CPU. Nothing to worry, as turning off this indexing feature won’t harm your system and you can able to search, just that it won’t index the files.

Follow these steps to Disable Search Indexing in Windows 10 in a recommended way.

1.Click the Start button and select Control Panel.

Note: Alternatively, you can search for “Indexing Options” from the Start search box.

2.Select the “Indexing option”.

3.You will see “Indexing Options” pop-up dialog box appear. In the below left-side of the dialog box, you will see the “Modify” button.

4.Clicking the “Modify” button, you will see a new dialog box will pop up on your screen.

5.Now, you have to use the “Indexed Locations” window for selecting the folder you want to be included in the indexing list. From here you can select drives for enabling or disabling indexing services for particular drives.

Now the choices are up to you, but most individuals go include folders having person files like documents, videos, images, contacts etc. It is worth noting that if you keep your personal files on another drive; then those files are normally not indexed by default, until and unless you bring your personal folders to that location.

Now that you have successfully disable Indexing in Windows 10, you can also disable Windows search altogether if you feel like not using it (because of performance issue). Through this procedure, you will disable indexing totally by turning off this Windows Search feature. But don’t worry as you will still have the facility to search files but it will take time for each search as it has to go through all of your files each time you input the strings for search.

Steps to Disable Windows Search

1.Click on the Start button and search for “Services”.

2.The Services window will appear, now scroll down to search for “Windows Search” from the list of services available.

3.Double click it to open it. You will see a new pop up dialog box will appear.

4.From the “Startup type” section, there will be various options in the form of a drop-down menu. Select the “Disabled” option. This will stop ‘Windows Search’ service. Press the “Stop” button for making changes.

5.Then you have to click the “Apply” button followed by OK.

To turn the “Windows Search” service back on, you have to follow the same steps and change the Startup type from “Disabled” to “Automatic or Automatic (Delayed Start)” and then press the “OK” button.

If you are experiencing problems regarding searching – which seems unpredictably slow, or at times the search is crashing – it is recommended to completely restore or restructure the search index. This might take a while for rebuilding, but it will solve the issue.

To rebuild the index, you have to click “Advanced” button.

And from the new pop up dialog box click the “Rebuild” button.

It will take some time to rebuild the indexing service from scratch.

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I hope the above steps were helpful and now you can easily Disable Indexing in Windows 10 but if you still have any questions regarding this tutorial then feel free to ask them in the comment’s section.