Enabling the Indexing Service

The Indexing Service (Cisvc.exe) used in previous Windows platforms is still available in Windows 7 and Windows Vista as an optional feature that administrators can turn on if needed by following these steps:

• Select Programs from Control Panel.
• Under Programs And Features, click Turn Windows Features On Or Off and respond to the User Account Control (UAC) prompt that appears.
• In the Turn Windows Features On Or Off dialog box, select the Indexing Service check box and then click OK.

The main reason enterprises might need to enable the previous Indexing Service would be for application compatibility reasons. For example, if enterprises develop applications that depend on Cisvc.exe, they can enable this service to support those applications. The Microsoft Office Visio shape-finding process also uses Cisvc.exe to index shapes. Therefore, if you need to search for shapes quickly in Office or Office Visio on some computers, you can enable Cisvc.exe on those computers.

Note Microsoft does not recommend running the older Indexing Service on computers running Windows 7 unless you have a compelling need to do so. The Indexing Service will likely be removed in a future version of Windows.