Indexing service

The indexing service is a program that indexes files on your computer to speed up search results when you perform a search. It usually wakes up and starts doing it's job when your computer is idle. That's the reason why some pc's hard disks often start making a lot of noise when nobody's working on them.
The indexing service is also mentioned in a lot of performance tips for Windows XP, because it can interfere with your work. If you don't perform a lot of file searches on your pc, you might want to disable the indexing service.

• Click on the Start button, right click "My Computer" and select "Manage"
• In the navigation tree at the left, go to the bottom and click the little "+" sign next to "services and applications"
• Select "Services"
• In the right Windows pane, scroll to "Indexing service", right click it and select "Properties"
• Make sure that "Manual" is selected from the drop-down list under "Startup type"