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Correct way to disable indexing in Windows 7

Fresh7 days ago
Mar 15, 2026303192 views
Confidence Score1%
1%

Problem

What's the best way to disable indexing in Windows 7? All of the articles that I've found online instruct me to access services.msc and disable the Windows Search service. However, even after I did that, when I right click properties of my C-drive, I notice the "Allow files on this drive...indexed..." is still checked. So should I uncheck that option and re-enable Windows Search? Or just uncheck it and leave the Windows Search service disabled?

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Fix for: Correct way to disable indexing in Windows 7

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If your objective is to retain search functionality, but not to use indexes, you need to set up the following situation: Turn off the indexing (to prevent an index being produced). Delete the existing index (to prevent windows from using the index during searches). Avoid re-enabling indexing. Optional: enable the searching of file contents. Turning off indexing Start -> Run -> services.msc -> disable and stop . Ensure that the Startup type is set to disabled to prevent Windows from starting it …

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