OFF2000: Performance Issues After Installing Find Fast

ID: Q200306

The information in this article applies to:
IMPORTANT: This article contains information about editing the registry. Before you edit the registry, make sure you understand how to restore it if a problem occurs. For information about how to do this, view the "Restoring the Registry" Help topic in Regedit.exe or the "Restoring a Registry Key" Help topic in Regedt32.exe.

SYMPTOMS

After you install Microsoft Office and work in a program or after you restart Microsoft Windows, the computer responds slowly or may appear to temporarily stop responding (hang). The pointer may change to an hourglass and hard disk activity may increase. However, if you wait for a while the computer responds at its normal speed.


CAUSE

This problem may occur after you install the Microsoft Office Find Fast Indexer or if the amount of free disk space is small. Creating an index on a large drive may impact performance when creating or updating an index.


RESOLUTION

Use either of the following methods to resolve the problem.

Method 1: Change Registry Value for the Find Fast Indexer

To improve the performance when you use the Find Fast indexer utility, add the SlowDown value setting in the Windows registry. The SlowDown value tells Find Fast to delay indexing for a specified amount of time between index updates. Delaying indexing minimizes system activity and increases performance.

WARNING: Using Registry Editor incorrectly can cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that problems resulting from the incorrect use of Registry Editor can be solved. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.

For information about how to edit the registry, view the "Changing Keys and Values" Help topic in Registry Editor (Regedit.exe) or the "Add and Delete Information in the Registry" and "Edit Registry Data" Help topics in Regedt32.exe. Note that you should back up the registry before you edit it. If you are running Windows NT, you should also update your Emergency Repair Disk (ERD).

To add the SlowDown setting, follow these steps:
  1. Quit any programs that are running.


  2. click Start, click Run, and type regedit and click OK.


  3. In the Registry Editor, navigate to the following key:


    4. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Office\9.0\Find Fast
  4. On the Edit menu, point to New and click DWORD Value. With New Value #1 selected, type SlowDown, and then press ENTER.


  5. With the value SlowDown selected, click Modify on the Edit menu. In DWORD Value under Base, click Decimal. Type a value greater than 1,000 (valid values are between 0 and 10,000).

    NOTE: These values are measured in milliseconds. The implicit default value is one second or 1,000 milliseconds.


  6. Click OK and quit the Registry Editor.


  7. Restart Windows.


Method 2: Check Your Disk Space

Check to make sure that you have enough disk space available. If you are running low on disk space, delete any files or folders that you are not using and empty the Recycle Bin to create more available disk space.

If you are running Windows 98, you can free up disk space by running the Disk Cleanup program included in the System Tools folder.

For additional information about the Disk Cleanup tool, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
Q186099 Description of the Disk Cleanup Tool in Windows 98


MORE INFORMATION

Although you configure Find Fast in the Control Panel, Find Fast indexes documents automatically when you use the Open and Advanced commands in Office programs, including Microsoft Outlook. Find Fast is placed in the Control Panel when you install Office.

You can use the Find Fast Control Panel to set options, and to create and delete indexes on the hard disk and on network drives.

For additional information about Find Fast, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q205289 OFF2000: Overview of Find Fast Indexer

Additional query words: OFF2000 findfast 


Keywords          : kbtool kbdta 
Version           : WINDOWS:2000
Platform          : WINDOWS 
Issue type        : kbprb

Last Reviewed: May 13, 1999