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What does the Windows Search service do and do I need it?



 
 
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  #1  
Old August 26th 19, 06:02 AM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
Micky
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Posts: 1,528
Default What does the Windows Search service do and do I need it?

What does the Windows Search service do and do I need it?

It says: "Provides content indexing, property caching, and search
results for files, e-mail, and other content."

I thought indexing and file finding was done by having a structured
files system, with fully qualified file names.

And searching email is done by the Eudora email client, either with its
regular search function or it's fancy extended one. No need to involve
windows.

I ask bcause stopping this service is one of 7 suggestions for getting
rid of Disk 100%, that continues to haunt me.
https://whatsabyte.com/windows/fix-1...ge-windows-10/
It's the first of 7 and I'm not committed to it, and I'm going to review
all 7, but even if it's not the problem, I'm really curious what it
does.


I've posted here about various problems, and I finally thought to google
Disk 100% which seems like the heart of most of them. My computer
can be working fine and then I have dinner and either I sleep it first
or it times out and sleeps, and when I come back it can take a full 15
minutes, mabye more, when it won't do anything and the Disk stays at
100%. I've presumed this has something to do with Intelligent sleep,
but since there's been no power failure and no interruption at all,
except for sleeping, why is any disk activity needed at all? Why
doesn't it start right up and run like it was before I left? 1/4 of the
time it does, but 3/4's, it's like molasses.

TIA
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  #2  
Old August 26th 19, 08:02 AM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
Paul[_32_]
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Posts: 11,873
Default What does the Windows Search service do and do I need it?

micky wrote:
What does the Windows Search service do and do I need it?

It says: "Provides content indexing, property caching, and search
results for files, e-mail, and other content."

I thought indexing and file finding was done by having a structured
files system, with fully qualified file names.

And searching email is done by the Eudora email client, either with its
regular search function or it's fancy extended one. No need to involve
windows.

I ask bcause stopping this service is one of 7 suggestions for getting
rid of Disk 100%, that continues to haunt me.
https://whatsabyte.com/windows/fix-1...ge-windows-10/
It's the first of 7 and I'm not committed to it, and I'm going to review
all 7, but even if it's not the problem, I'm really curious what it
does.


I've posted here about various problems, and I finally thought to google
Disk 100% which seems like the heart of most of them. My computer
can be working fine and then I have dinner and either I sleep it first
or it times out and sleeps, and when I come back it can take a full 15
minutes, mabye more, when it won't do anything and the Disk stays at
100%. I've presumed this has something to do with Intelligent sleep,
but since there's been no power failure and no interruption at all,
except for sleeping, why is any disk activity needed at all? Why
doesn't it start right up and run like it was before I left? 1/4 of the
time it does, but 3/4's, it's like molasses.

TIA


OK, the popcorn is loaded in the microwave.

Micky goes off to stop the Search Indexer and...

"I can't stop it."

Something is likely to keep turning it on. The service
definition has rules for the first three failures. Well,
that's not the end of it. There could be something in
Scheduled Tasks (a tag team partner), that will keep turning
it on.

While you could stop it in early versions of Windows 10,
it should "run like a Trane" now, and be unstoppable.

If you discover otherwise, I would be genuinely surprised.

You could of course, rip all the executable content out
of there... You know you wanna :-/ So far, I haven't
seen any "liquid metal robot" repair techniques in
there.

Even if you manage to reduce the area of disk indexed by
the thing to one file, it will beat the **** out of the
disk drive, just for spite. Because we have to loop around
on that one file, or find an excuse to do something,
as we're the Search Indexer and designed to waste
electricity.

While I think it's great you found an "easy peasy" article,
I think the result will be "Computer: 1, Micky: 0".

They've even made it hard to stop Windows Defender now,
and to do it properly, you have to use GPEdit on Pro.

When Microsoft wants something, they usually get it.

And right now, they've decided 100% disk belongs to
Microsoft, 0% disk belongs to Micky.

In cases where I had it looping, and the count of things
indexed would go 1,2,1,2,1,2, forever, I was never able
to figure out what file it kept indexing. You could
use ProcMon to find out.

As for SuperFetch, I thought it had been removed in 1903.
It is a famous pig for disk activity. Now, what's neat
about that one (when it was still around), is you could
stop it and it would stay stopped.

It might even be possible for SuperFetch to move a file,
for an entry to be made in the USN Journal, then for
the Indexer to index it. To complete the loop, we need
SuperFetch to move the file back, and that's the part that
doesn't make sense. I don't see how that part (Superfetch)
can complete the looping construct.

If you do have a SuperFetch, it should work properly
in the services.msc panel. Switch it off, it stays off.

Paul
  #3  
Old August 26th 19, 08:44 AM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
Big Bad Bob
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Posts: 793
Default What does the Windows Search service do and do I need it?

On 2019-08-25 22:02, micky wrote:
What does the Windows Search service do and do I need it?


I never use it. I believe it pre-indexes everything on your disk drive
for (allegedly) faster searches. But in my opinion it's a waste of
space and CPU time. You can turn of indexing on an entire drive. That
should put a stop to its wastage. Then disable the service entirely
from the service manager. You'll never miss it.

  #4  
Old August 26th 19, 11:10 AM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
Micky
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Posts: 1,528
Default What does the Windows Search service do and do I need it?

In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Mon, 26 Aug 2019 00:44:55 -0700, Big Bad
Bob wrote:

On 2019-08-25 22:02, micky wrote:
What does the Windows Search service do and do I need it?


I never use it. I believe it pre-indexes everything on your disk drive
for (allegedly) faster searches. But in my opinion it's a waste of
space and CPU time. You can turn of indexing on an entire drive. That
should put a stop to its wastage. Then disable the service entirely
from the service manager. You'll never miss it.


Well you've said it's a good idea to turn it off, and Paul says it will
be a challenge. I like a challenge too.

When I started it warned me that it woud turn of the Windows Media
Player Sharing! I rarely use wmp, and I never share. I missed that
class in kindergarten.

So I said go ahead and it t turned off wmp sharing first and then search
second. Of course I don't know if it wil stay off.

Thanks to both of you.
  #5  
Old August 26th 19, 11:17 AM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
Micky
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Posts: 1,528
Default What does the Windows Search service do and do I need it?

In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Mon, 26 Aug 2019 03:02:21 -0400, Paul
wrote:



As for SuperFetch, I thought it had been removed in 1903.


I don't think I have 1903 yet, some problem every time I try to instal
it, but I also don't have Superfetch. I wondered about that. Of course
there is no date on that webpage -- a date would make things simple --
but the comments are between 2.5 and 0.5 years old, so that's pretty
recent, but Superfetch has changed (gone away) anyhow.


It is a famous pig for disk activity. Now, what's neat
about that one (when it was still around), is you could
stop it and it would stay stopped.

It might even be possible for SuperFetch to move a file,
for an entry to be made in the USN Journal, then for
the Indexer to index it. To complete the loop, we need
SuperFetch to move the file back, and that's the part that
doesn't make sense. I don't see how that part (Superfetch)
can complete the looping construct.

If you do have a SuperFetch, it should work properly
in the services.msc panel. Switch it off, it stays off.


  #6  
Old August 26th 19, 02:24 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
Ken Springer[_2_]
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Posts: 3,817
Default What does the Windows Search service do and do I need it?

On 8/26/19 4:17 AM, micky wrote:
Of course
there is no date on that webpage


There's a date for the page in my Firefox browser. The opening screen
shows a stupid title box that says "
7 Tips to Fix 100% Disk Usage Problem in Windows 10
January 12, 2017
By Tony Tran
Categorized under Windows
6 Comments
Share


Page info has an article published time that matches the above date, but
an article modified time of 2019-02-18.

--
Ken
MacOS 10.14.5
Firefox 67.0.4
Thunderbird 60.7
"My brain is like lightning, a quick flash
and it's gone!"
  #7  
Old August 26th 19, 02:44 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
Ken Springer[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 3,817
Default What does the Windows Search service do and do I need it?

On 8/25/19 11:02 PM, micky wrote:
What does the Windows Search service do and do I need it?

It says: "Provides content indexing, property caching, and search
results for files, e-mail, and other content."

I thought indexing and file finding was done by having a structured
files system, with fully qualified file names.

And searching email is done by the Eudora email client, either with its
regular search function or it's fancy extended one. No need to involve
windows.

I ask bcause stopping this service is one of 7 suggestions for getting
rid of Disk 100%, that continues to haunt me.
https://whatsabyte.com/windows/fix-1...ge-windows-10/
It's the first of 7 and I'm not committed to it, and I'm going to review
all 7, but even if it's not the problem, I'm really curious what it
does.


I've posted here about various problems, and I finally thought to google
Disk 100% which seems like the heart of most of them. My computer
can be working fine and then I have dinner and either I sleep it first
or it times out and sleeps, and when I come back it can take a full 15
minutes, mabye more, when it won't do anything and the Disk stays at
100%. I've presumed this has something to do with Intelligent sleep,
but since there's been no power failure and no interruption at all,
except for sleeping, why is any disk activity needed at all? Why
doesn't it start right up and run like it was before I left? 1/4 of the
time it does, but 3/4's, it's like molasses.


Personally, I wouldn't live without it.

I never paid much attention to indexing, until after I learned how to
use Spotlight on my Mac. It was an eye-opener, and I've changed the way
I use the Mac. Spotlight uses the Mac's indexing feature.

That got me to investigating Windows Indexing, and after gaining a
handle on the way if operates, I now use my Windows systems much in the
same way. Windows is more "klunky" and less user friendly, but using
indexing is still more useful than not using it, IMO.

It should be obvious, the capabilities of the hardware and the amount of
data you want indexed will play a big part in how well indexing actually
works.


--
Ken
MacOS 10.14.5
Firefox 67.0.4
Thunderbird 60.7
"My brain is like lightning, a quick flash
and it's gone!"
 




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