How to speed up Indexing in Windows 7 and Windows 8
Windows 7 – To disable the indexer backoff?
For use in a group policy object (GPO) – eg, if your PC is on a Domain, open RegEdit (goto):
Computer Configuration\Windows Settings\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Search. The setting to disable the indexer backoff is not surprisingly called Disable indexer backoff. By default, it is set to Not Configured but you will want to set this to Enabled.
If your PC is on a Domain, open RegEdit (goto): For a non-domain joined computer, or a single PC, you can set this DWORD registry key:
HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Search\DisableBackoff with a value of 1.
Alternative from a command prompt (as Administrator) run:
reg add “HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Search” /v DisableBackoff /t REG_DWORD /d 1 && net stop “Windows Search” && net start “Windows Search”
Windows 8 – To disable the indexer backoff?
This is the registry key/modify this to be:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows Search\Gathering Manager\
DisableBackoff = 1
*Run regedit as Administrator. In regedit take ownership of the key by going to the Menu: Edit -> Permissions, then enable writing to this value. This is found under the “Permissions…” context menu for the reg key.
