Windows XP comes with a resource hogging "Indexing Services". This sluggish CPU hog builds "indexes" of file contents to speed up searches. It never sped up anything for me. To keep the indexes up to date, indexing services constantly "sniffs" the hard drive, looking in files and updating the indexes. I have seen Indexing Services sucking up as much as 25% of CPU time. Your computer will run faster if you kill Indexing Services.
This can be done from "Add | Remove Programs", a Microsoft applet on the Control Panel. You get to Control Panel from the Start button. Do Start, then Settings then Control Panel.
Add | Remove Programs makes you wait while it builds a list of what's installed. Once it comes back to life, click on "Add|Remove Windows Components. This will display a list of optional Windows bits and pieces. Uncheck "Indexing Services" and he will be gone.
While you are in here, any other Windows bit or piece you don't need can be unchecked. This machine (Antique Laptop) has Fax Services, Management and Monitoring Tools,MSN Explorer, Other Network File and Print Services and Outlook Express unchecked and he runs just fine. Even if you don't use Internet Exploder for your browser, you want to keep him around. Microsoft update (which brings you the latest Windows patches) only works with Exploder. No Exploder, no patches.
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