I ran some performance tests in the control panel and looked up their suggestion to improve performance. One was to make adjustments to Windows Indexing.
When I opened up the dialog box for that, it tells me “Indexing is not running.”
First questions, because the documentation suggests it speeds Window searches. Is this referring to file or string searches by me, the user? Or is it also about searches that Windows runs internally when called upon various programs to find other files, functions, whatever?
Second question is how to I turn it on? There doesn’t seem to be an on switch anywhere. All the documentation suggests it’s always on though it may need occasional adjustments.
Indexing is in Control Panel under Indexing Options. By default, it indexes the user folders created for you by Windows. There is a modify setting that lets you select drives or folders to index. Point this at the folders where you keep your music, pictures, documents, etc and you’re good to go.
When you first add folders to the index you’ll notice a lot of hard drive grinding as Windows does its thing. This is normal and will only carry on until the initial indexing is done.
Let me clarify my key question – does this speed up the computer by speeding up my personal searches for music or pics or whatever? Or does this speed up the programs I use by helping them find files, disk sectors or whatever to make my general programs run faster?
Let me give a couple of examples. #1. iTunes – I’m guessing that indexing my iTunes music folders will allow the music to start playing sooner than it would otherwise, right?
Example #2 – some random game. It got auto-installed and has dozens of folders and hundreds or thousands of files. I have no idea what files are needed when while the game is running, the game itself calls them and I remain oblivious. Does indexing speed up a game? Would I have to choose a game and tell Windows to index it, or would it do it as a matter of routine?
Indexing speeds up your searches. If you are looking for FOO.doc doing a search, Indexing will return the results of the search faster as long as the file is locate in a place that is indexed.
#1 ITunes and similar products do their own kind of indexing. I don’t think that Windows indexing will help.
#2. The game must know where the files are located. If it auto-installed, it knows were to look for the needed files. I doubt that Windows Indexing will help there either.