OFF97: Computer Slows When Find Fast Is Running

When Microsoft Find Fast is creating or updating an index, your computer appears to slow down until the index is created or updated.

This behavior occurs when either of the following conditions is true:

• You shut down the computer while Find Fast is creating or updating an index.
  
  The next time you start your computer, Find Fast must restart and complete the index.
  
  -and-
  
  
• Other programs automatically start when you start Microsoft Windows.
  
  -or-
  
  
• You are running other programs that have a lower processing priority than Microsoft Find Fast.

To help minimize the amount of time that Microsoft Find Fast requires to create or update an index, use the following methods.

Method 1

Before you shut down the computer, verify that Microsoft Find Fast has completed processing any indices. To check the status of your indices, use the following steps:

1. On the Start menu, point to Settings and click Control Panel. In the Control Panel, double-click Find Fast to run it.
2. For each of your indices, check the Status column. If the status for any index is Now Creating or Now Updating, Find Fast is processing the index. A status of Update Automatically indicates that the index is updated and that Find Fast is idle.

Method 2

Increase the update interval. When you specify a larger interval of time after which Find Fast can update the indexes, it is less likely that you will interrupt Find Fast while it is running. This is true because indices are updated less often. The interval ranges are in whole hours. To increase the interval, use the following steps:

1. On the Start menu, point to Settings and click Control Panel. In the Control Panel, double-click Find Fast to run it.
2. On the Index menu, click Update Interval. In the Update Interval dialog box, change the value in the "For automatic updates, index again every __ hour(s)" box. This value must be an integer.

The Find Fast utility is installed when you install Microsoft Office. If your computer has more then 8 megabytes (MB) of random access memory (RAM), Find Fast creates a hidden index on each of the local drives on your computer. These indices contain words, titles, and OLE properties for each file on that drive. The indices help speed up finding and opening files when you use the Advanced Find and Open dialog boxes within the Microsoft Office programs.

For more information about using Find Fast, click the Index tab in Microsoft Find Fast Help, type the following text and then double-click the selected text to go to the "About Find Fast" topic.