Like the title says: Goodbye Windows Search!
Up until recently, Windows Search 4.0 has been a great addition to our systems, by improving search abilities and system performance by caching files and allowing us to search and locate items faster, including MS Outlook Emails etc
Then one day things turned foul and system performance was significantly degraded across a number of our systems.
At first we assumed either a bug (virus or spyware) had infiltrated our fantastic firewall and AV security systems, so we jumped onto scanning the entire network, which turned up nothing, but upon further checks, we noticed that the searchindexer.exe process for Windows Search was bouncing some high CPU resources, some 100% of them.
After hours of “googling” and searching for an answer, it was made known to us that we were not the only one experiencing this issue within XP and Vista.
According to sources, it is due to WS trying to index some 300,000 files/folders/items. Whilst this was ok, the fact that it was degrading CPU performance severly was enough for us to be in deseperate need of a fix!
After searching for hours and trying to reduce the number of resources used, items cached and more, we decided to entirely remove Windows Search to see what change would be made….and you guess it. CPU usage returned to an all time low!
We got our CPU back!
Whilst we loved having Windows Search on our systems and especially loved the “instant search” feature included in Microsoft Outlook 2007, it wasn’t worth loosing system performance over; not by a long shot!
In short, we managed to find and fix our system performance issues without resorting to a format or reinstall or think there was another major network or system issue…which is a big relief!
Whilst we are a Microsoft partner and use alot of MS related products in our office, one thing we will no longer be using is WS (unfortunately).
Until Microsoft resolve this somewhat stupid issue with Windows Desktop Search, we’ll be keeping it that way too.
Of course, the downfalls are that email searching within Outlook will now be a pain in the backside consider we no longer have instant search, it’s not the end of the world.
Our suggestion for other Windows users:
If you have noticed a degrade in your computers overall performance lately, check if your system has Windows Search installed, particularly Windows Search 4.0
If so, we’d suggest removing it and seeing how your system performance increases.
David Arno has an article on removing WS here: http://www.davidarno.org/2008/08/22/how-to-remove-windows-desktop-search-…-revisited/ to which he also covers the previous version, known as Windows Desktop Search.
By removing Windows Search, you will also get your good old XP Search back (if using Windows XP)
It is unfortunate that Microsoft have this issue with such a useful tool, but in the end, we wanted our system performance back…and OUR CPU BACK!
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