Question

How do I disable the Windows Search indexing magnifying glass in XP?

Asked by: Tim86

I've tried everything I can to disable this, by disabling Indexing Service at startup, as well as unchecking the "Allow Indexing Service" checkbox on my drives.  But it still runs frequently, with the little magnifying glass in the lower right corner of my desktop.  This is very annoying...it slows down my whole computer every time it runs.  How can I make it stop once and for all?

This Question has been solved and asker verified All Experts Exchange premium technology solutions are available to subscription members.

Subscribe now for full access to Experts Exchange and get

Instant Access to this Solution

  • Plus...
  • 30 Day FREE access, no risk, no obligation
  • Collaborate with the world's top tech experts
  • Unlimited access to our exclusive solution database
  • Never be left without tech help again

Subscribe Now

Asked On
2009-09-26 at 21:39:48ID24764774
Topic

Windows XP Operating System

Participating Experts
4
Points
250
Comments
13

Trusted by hundreds of thousands everyday for fast, accurate and reliable tech support.

  • "The time we save is the biggest benefit of Experts Exchange to Warner Bros. What could take multiple guys 2 hours or more each to find is accessed in around 15 minutes on Experts Exchange." Mike Kapnisakis, Warner Bros.
  • "Our team likes having a resource that is more secure than just using Google and most experts using this service really know their stuff. It's nice to look here first versus using Google." Dayna Sellner, Lockheed Martin
  • "Anytime that I've been stumped with a problem, 9 out of 10 times Experts Exchange has either the accepted solution or an open discussion of the potential solution to the problem." Kenny Red, eBay Inc.

See what Experts Exchange can do for you.

Got a question?

We've got the answer.

Experts Exchange has been collecting answers to technology questions since 1996…3 million and counting! If you have a question, chances are we already have your answer.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Need individual assistance?

Our experts are ready to help.

If you can't find the exact answer you're looking for, ask our exclusive community of 50,000 experts. You’ll get a personalized answer from a trusted professional.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Want to learn from the best?

Read articles from industry experts.

Thousands of free tech tips, tricks, how-to’s and tutorials are available in our peer reviewed articles section. See for yourself how smart our experts are, no login required.

Screenshot of an Article

Working on a long term project?

Store your work and research.

Save solutions to your questions, answers you’ve discovered through searching plus helpful articles in your personal knowledgebase for easy future access.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Access the answers to your technology questions today.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

What Makes Experts Exchange Unique?

Members of the expert community talk about why the experience at Experts Exchange is different than what you will find anywhere else.

Trusted by the world's most respected brands.

image of each brand's logo

Faithfully serving IT professionals since 1996.

Experts Exchange Logo

Try it out and discover for yourself.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

Related Solutions

  1. 3d glasses
    Anyone know where I can but some 3d glasses? Thanks.
  2. Anti-glare screen vs sun-glasses
    Instead of anti-glare screen , can sun-glasses be used as protection against radiation from the monitor ?

Free Tech Articles

  1. WARNING: 5 Reasons why you should NEVER fix a computer for free.
    It is in our nature to love the puzzle. We are obsessed. The lot of us. We love puzzles. We love the challenge. We thrive on finding the answer. We hate disarray. It bothers us deep in our soul. W...
  2. SCCM OSD Basic troubleshooting
    SCCM 2007 OSD is a fantastic way to deploy operating systems, however, like most things SCCM issues can sometimes be difficult to resolve due to the sheer volume of logs to sift through and the dispe...
  3. Migrate Small Business Server 2003 to Exchange 2010 and Windows 2008 R2
    This guide is intended to provide step by step instructions on how to migrate from Small Business Server 2003 to Windows 2008 R2 with Exchange 2010. For this migration to work you will need the fo...
  4. Create a Win7 Gadget
    This article shows you how to create a simple "Gadget" -- a sort of mini-application supported by Windows 7 and Vista. Gadgets can be dropped anywhere on the desktop to provide instant information, ...
  5. Outlook continually prompting for username and password
    There have been a lot of questions recently regarding Outlook prompting for a username and password whilst using Exchange 2007. There are a few reasons why this would happen and I will try to cover t...
  6. Backup Exchange 2010 Information Store using Windows Backup
    There seems to be quite a lot of confusion around the ability to backup Exchange 2010 using the built in Windows Backup feature. This stems from the omission of this feature prior to Exchange 2007 s...

Cloud Class Webinars

  1. Avoiding Bugs in Microsoft Access
    Alison Balter takes and in-depth look at avoiding bugs in Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the immediate window to debug your applications, invoking the debugger, using breakpoints to troubleshoot, stepping through code, setting the next statement to execute, ...
  2. Top 10 Best New Features in Visio 2010
    Scott Helmers gives live demonstrations of the top 10 new features in Visio 2010. This webinar will teach you how to create compelling diagrams by adding shapes to the page with a single click, linking the shapes in a diagram to data in Excel (or SQL Server, or SharePoint), ...
  3. IT Consultant Business Secrets Revealed
    Michael Munger, Experts Exchange tech pro and IT consultant, pulls back the curtain on his very successful businesses and answers question on every IT consultant and business owner should know about. He shares secrets on what he did to solve the 5 most common problems in IT, ...
  4. Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity
    Quest CTO, Mike Billon, gives an overview of the steps involved in building a dunamic disaster recovery plan. Through case studies and an examination of software/hardware tooles for monitoring and testing, you'll gain a better understandin of where you are, where you want ...
  5. Organize Your Visio Diagrams with Containers and Lists
    Scott Helmers uses cross functional flowcharts, wireframe diagrams, data graphic legends and seating charts to teach you: how to ustilize all three new structured diagram components in Visio 2010, the best practices for organizeing shapes in previous version of Visio, how to organize ...
  6. How to Us Objects, Properties, Events and Methods in Microsoft Access
    Alison Dalter gives an in-depbth look at objects, properties, events and methods in Microsoft Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the object browser, referring to objects, working with properties and methods, working with object variables, understanding the ...

Join the Community

Give a Little. Get a Lot.

Join the community of experts here and help other tech pros by answering question in your area of expertise. You can earn FREE access to all Experts Exchange's premium features and resources.

Join the Community

Answers

 

by: vikshiPosted on 2009-09-26 at 22:13:41ID: 25432847

 

by: vikshiPosted on 2009-09-26 at 22:15:05ID: 25432853

 

by: SheharyaarSaahilPosted on 2009-09-27 at 00:03:21ID: 25432997

>> But it still runs frequently, with the little magnifying glass in the lower right corner of my desktop.
Im sorry but i didn't get you.....windows xp doesn't have such kind of feature.
can you grab a screenshot and post here, may be it's something else bugging you?

 

by: johngerityPosted on 2009-09-27 at 06:24:45ID: 25433945

When do you see the magnifying glass?

Also, have you looked at Task Manager and see what's using up the CPU so much? If you don't see it, try using Process Explorer, which is like Task Manager on steroids. You can add columns to Process Explorer that show graphical history of CPU and traffic (I/O) actually inside the list. It's free and may show you what's the REAL CPU hog here.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx

But yes, please let us know just when this magnifying glass appears, and a screenshot if you can too.

 

by: Tim86Posted on 2009-09-27 at 06:26:46ID: 25433949

I couldn't get a screen capture, since it is in the tray on the lower right corner.  ALT-Print Screen didn't want to include it.  But I attached an image from the internet which looks very similar to it.  When it is indexing, the "glass" part of the image changes colors gradually.

  • mag.JPG
    • 985 bytes

    magnifying glass image

    magnifying glass image
 

by: SheharyaarSaahilPosted on 2009-09-27 at 06:40:53ID: 25433974

I still doubt that it belongs to XP native search assistant......
can you launch msconfig from Start>Run, goto Startup tab and click Disable All
Apply and restart
check now if the magnifying glass still appears in the system tray while you work around?

 

by: Tim86Posted on 2009-09-27 at 07:15:46ID: 25434047

I tried different combinations of disabled programs in msconfig's startup list, and narrowed it down to C:\PROGRA~1\WI459E~1\WINDOW~1.EXE  /startup

What is that?  I can't seem to trace it through my directories to find what that is.

 

by: SheharyaarSaahilPosted on 2009-09-27 at 07:18:05ID: 25434052

check under C:\Program Files folder, what's the folder starting with WI459E..... ?

 

by: SheharyaarSaahilPosted on 2009-09-27 at 07:21:57ID: 25434064

ok.....apparently it's related to Windows Desktop Search, do you have it installed on the system?
when you hit Ctrl+F, do you get the search assistant as show here?
http://blog.markjordan.org/archive/2007/02/16/43.aspx

 

by: Tim86Posted on 2009-09-27 at 10:14:01ID: 25434617

Yes, that's it.  In my Add/Remove Programs list, I have Windows Search 4.0.  Is my best option to uninstall this?  I can't find any options to disable the indexing process.

 

by: SheharyaarSaahilPosted on 2009-09-27 at 10:20:29ID: 25434631

well you don't need it, you didn't install it yourself.....then what's the point in keeping it on the system for bugging you :)

 

by: IainNIXPosted on 2009-09-29 at 02:38:44ID: 25447173

you need the KB940157 (Search 4.0) if you have Office 2007, in particular Outlook 2007, otherwise you cannot search for mail messages, like you could before in Outlook 03.

You can remove the spyglass shortcut from the All Users\Startup menu, to stop it running on login, which is where is lsows down the system, indexing the C drive again.  You can also disable the service, but it seems to find a way of running, and can be killed by the end tasking the SEARCHINDEXER service in Task Manager.  You also need to get rid of the start-bar white box too, again easily done.

once you remove the start-up icon, you will find the systems start to behave themselves.

to return the search function of XP back to the Search companion, you need to run one search with V4.0 and then go to the registry and edit this line to stop using the indexing search function (which will not search network drives, as they are not indexed).


Open RegEdit (Start > Run > regedit).
 
Find the following : HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows Desktop Search\DS
 
Double-click on ShowStartSearchBand and set the value to 0'. 
 
Close that and youre done, the next time you click Search in explorer, the old, reliable search companion will appear.

                                              
1:
2:
3:
4:
5:
6:
7:

Select allOpen in new window

 

by: Tim86Posted on 2009-10-02 at 11:18:10ID: 31634059

Thanks for the help everyone!  I'm so glad to be rid of that annoying spyglass.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

3 Ways to Join

30-Day Free Trial

The Experts

98% positive feedback on 31,087 answers since March 2000. angeliii is a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional for his work with MS SQL Server & Develoment.

He has also proven his knowledge of Visual Basic Programming, PHP Scripting and Oracle Databases.

The Experts

97% positive feedback on 10,752 answers since July 2000. lrmoore has more than 18 years experience in the networking industry.

The six-time Mircosoft MVPs specialties include firewalls, virtual private networking, and network management.

Testimonials

"...and excellent source for support... Kind of like having your very own IT dept." Electriciansnet

Testimonials

"I was apprehensive at signing up at first. However... it has already made my life as an IT administrator much easier." JaCrews

Testimonials

"WOW! You guys have great, active, and knowledgeable people on here." moore50

Business Clients

Business Clients

In the Press

"If you’ve got a question... Experts Exchange can supply an answer.”

In the Press

"...an invaluable aid for both IT professionals and those who require tech support."

In the Press

"where IT professionals provide quick answers on just about any topic"

Business Account Plans

Loading Advertisement...