Control Windows Vista Indexing

Like Windows XP, Windows Vista uses indexing of data to speed up computer operations. In Windows Vista the indexing is not just limited to files and folder, but extends to the indexing of e-mails and attachments. This of course makes searching files and e-mails in Outlook a lot faster.

Indexing the e-mails and attachments in Outlook can actually also be a bottleneck to Vista performance. If you have a very large mailbox, the indexing process takes more and more time. As a result it might be better to disable the indexing of Outlook e-mails. You need to test if your system has a performance improvement as a result, but consider mailboxes of over 500 MB as a good starting point to consider disabling the indexing for Outlook.

Disabling the indexing of e-mails in Windows Vista to improve Vista performance requires the use of the policy editor.

1. Press and hold the Windows key and then press the R-key.
2. In the Run dialog, type gpedit.msc and click OK.
3. If the UAC message comes up, click Continue.
4. In the Group Policy editor window, select:
   Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Search
5. Next, right-click Prevent indexing e-mail attachments and in the popup menu select Properties.
6. In the Properties dialog box, select Enabled and click OK.
7. Repeat the last 2 steps for the option: Prevent indexing Microsoft Office Outlook.
8. Now close the Group Policy editor.

These changes will help you control the Windows Vista indexing service and maximize system performance. If you have a mailbox with many e-mails that have attachments, the first setting might be sufficient already. And if you feel the performance increase is not noticeable, you can always revert back to the original indexing settings.