How to Turn Off and Disable Search Indexing Service

Turn off indexing on drives in Windows XP

Open up “My Computer”. Or open “Windows Explorer” and then expand Computer tree.
Right click on the hard drive to disable indexing (i.e (C:) drive letter).
Select Properties on the contextual menu.
Click on General tab if it’s not already selected.
Untick (unselect) the check box for Allow Indexing Service to index this disk for fast file searching option.
Click OK, and wait for the index removal process to complete, which may take a few minutes.
Repeat the steps for other hard drives if applicable.

Disable the Indexing Service in Windows XP

Open “Control Panel”, select “Administrator Tools”, and open Services applet. Alternatively, type services.msc in the Rn text box from Start menu, and then hit Enter.
Scroll down and locate Indexing Service service, and then double click on it.
Click on Stop button to immediately stop the indexing service if the service status shows “Running.
Under the “Startup Type”, select Disabled to permanently disable the indexing service so that it won’t run again.
Click OK.

Disable the Indexing Service in Windows Vista

Click on Start button, then select Control Panel -> System and Maintenance -> Administrative Tools, and double click on Services applet. Alternatively, simply type “Services” (without quotes) in Start Search box.
If User Account Control asks for permission, click Continue.
Locate an service named Windows Search. Right click on Windows Search, and then select Properties on contextual menu.
Click on Stop button to stop the indexing service immediately.
On the Startup Type dropdown box, select Disabled.
Click on OK button.

Disabling Indexing on Drives in Windows Vista

Open Windows Explorer from Accessories.
Right click on the drive (or drive letter) that you want to turn off the indexing.
Select Properties on the contextual menu.
Unselect (untick) the Index this drive for faster searching option.
Click Apply or OK button.

Indexing Options Remove or Exclude Indexed Locations in Control Panel

Click on Start button.
Click on Control Panel.
Click on System and Maintenance.
Click on Indexing Options.
To remove an Included Location, simply click on Modify button, and then uncheck the checkbox for respective folders under the “Change selected locations” box.

To remove indexing on Start Menu and/or Users folder, click on “Advanced” button at Indexing Options dialog or “Show all locations” in Indexed Locations dialog. UAC access request continue required. Click on Start Menu and Users once at “Summary of selected locations” box if you do not see the checkbox for them.