how to disable indexing service (permanently!), on Windows 2003 R2

Solution 1:

OK, I think I found the answer. I discovered there's another service, named Windows Search, on the same server, and that service was "Started". So I disabled it. The searchindexer.exe process then disappeared.

I don't know why there is both an "Indexing Service" and a "Windows Search" service on the same machine, or how they're different, but hopefully things are fixed now.

I guess we'll know for sure after next time we reboot the server. Thanks again for looking at this question.

Solution 2:

Another thing you might want to add to your checklist is going to the properties of the hard drive itself in the general page there might be a checkbox enabled which says "allow files on this drive to have contents indexed" you will want to uncheck that and apply changes inheriting all the way through to all files and folders on the volume.