Indexing Service keeps getting re-enabled

  • Thread starter Thread starter Tom Hall
  • Start date Start date
T

Tom Hall

XP Pro SP2:

Something keeps turning the indexing service back on, even after I've
disabled the service. On several occasions I've attempted to disabling the
service by adjusting the settings in the Search window, and also going
directly to the service, turning it off, and then disabling it.

A few hours later and it's back running again.

This is a recent development. The indexing service has never been a problem
until within the last few days.

Any help greatly appreciated.


Tom
 
Tom Hall said:
XP Pro SP2:

Something keeps turning the indexing service back on, even after I've
disabled the service. On several occasions I've attempted to disabling the
service by adjusting the settings in the Search window, and also going
directly to the service, turning it off, and then disabling it.

A few hours later and it's back running again.

This is a recent development. The indexing service has never been a problem
until within the last few days.

Any help greatly appreciated.


Tom
Click to expand...
Line 41 - Disable the Indexing Service (cisvc.exe)
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm
 
Line 41 - Disable the Indexing Service (cisvc.exe)
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm
Click to expand...

This worked until today. Now I haven't a clue. The registry value for Start
in the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\cisvc is 4,
and in "Add/Remove Windows Components" the box for "Indexing Service" is
unchecked.

Yet, for some inscrutable reason - and not necessarily at system startup -
the Indexing Service returns with 3 processes: one instance of cisvc.exe
and two instances of cidaemon.exe.

Now, at the moment, the service isn't running, and didn't start at bootup.
However, about 30 minutes ago I had Task Manager opened, RegEdit open to
the above-named key, and the Add-Remove Windows Components window open
showing no check mark besides Indexing Service.

When I clicked OK on the Add-Remove Windows Components window, I watched in
Task Manager as the 3 processes went away - and then about 5 seconds later
all 3 processes returned. Refreshing the view in RegEdit showed the Start
value still sitting at 4.

I briefly toyed with the idea of making a backup of the cisvc portion of
the registry hive, and then deleting the entire key, but I chickened out.
If it comes back I may try to actually delete the service, if that is
possible, to see if that works.

I even tried an old favorite technique of renaming the exe files. There's
one copy of cisvc.exe in windows\system32, and another copy in
windows\system32\dllcache. When I renamed the copy in system32, another
copy instantly appeared in the folder. When I tried renaming the copy in
dllcache, SFC immediately popped up saying a critical system file had been
altered. No joy there.

What on earth could be causing the Indexing Service to spontaneously
reactivate itself in spite of my using every documented method of disabling
it that I can find?? What makes it worse is that sometimes it goes away and
stays away for an unknown period of time, but almost invariably the service
reappears during the course of the Windows session.


Tom
 
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