Disc check in Windows XP

It certainly doesn't create the disk-thrashing that you'll witness whenever Vista boots.

If you have a home computer with XP installed on it, even if you have a home network, it is quite sensible to disable File Indexing. The few files/utilities that you'll probably use on a regular basis can just as easily be traced through the Prefetch system.

File Indexing is ON by default in Windows XP so you can turn it off by disabling it within Services.

Start > Run (type [b]SERVICES.MSC[/b]) > scroll down to 'Indexing Service' and double click the entry > in the 'Startup type:' box, change from Automatic to either Manual or Disabled > click 'Apply' > click 'OK'.

If you set it to 'Manual' it leaves the service available to the system if ever required, but it will NOT be enabled at start-up, so will not run unless called upon. Whereas, when set on 'Automatic', it would re-index your file system every time a file was added or deleted, and most of the time that the CPU is sitting idle too.