What is 'Indexing Services' and how do I use it?

[jsteph]

I recently did an Update (recommended out of the blue by MS) to Outlook 2002, and afterwards, I now have what seems to be near-constant harddisk activity. I snooped for the most recently created files to see what was up, and found a huge directorys structure that was freshly created (and is constantly updated):

C:\WINDOWS\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\Office Search Services\IndexingService
There's about 150 meg under the last directory here, with files like system.hash.gthr, some quite large. This is obviously (or ostensibly) some sort of search indexer, but I have no new 'Search' capabilities that I can see in Outlook.

After viewing some of these files, I see all sorts of info about all my files, and what seem to be text strings culled from personal documents. My sense of paranoi tells me that Microsoft, under the guise of and 'indexer', is actually spying on my PC. Has anyone else seen this and is there a benign explanation for this thing?
--jsteph

 

[Marcs41]

The indexer is just what is says it it is, indexing.
The purpose if for faster searches. It indexes all files (names etc.) into a database. When you use the Search or Find options, Windows looks there first and if it is in the Database, it will jump to the location faster.
If you don't search a lot, turn it off.
No paranoia is needed.

Marc
_{If 'something' 'somewhere' gives 'some' error, expect random guesses or no replies at all. Please specify details.
Free Tip: The F1 Key does NOT destroy your PC!}

 

[jsteph]

Thanks Marc. How does this differ from FastFind, which is what I always had set up before...is it just an improved version? In addition, I noticed many .xml files in the directory structure, but my Search dialog is not browser based, I'm not sure why such files would be needed. The fact that such executables as these were a part of the whole thing is what added to my paranoia.


--jsteph

 

[Marcs41]

You could, in a way, compare it with FastFind, but it goes much further then that.
XML is not by definition browser based, an XML file can contain data and/or a structure for data, which can be used by any XML-based application.
You really should ease down on your paranoia, it's not good for you.
There are many many paranoia stories about Microsoft, mostly from people who have every possible piece of junk software installed. Run Ad-Aware to see aal thos REALLY spying on you, MS is not amongst it.
Honestly, why would they need to anyway.
About the indexer again, I personally disable it, since I don't need the search to be faster, so I save CPU time.

Marc
_{If 'something' 'somewhere' gives 'some' error, expect random guesses or no replies at all. Please specify details.
Free Tip: The F1 Key does NOT destroy your PC!}