I'm trying to debug why suddenly the PC slowed down where Resmon.exe showed what I considered excessive TCP connections, some of which were Search.exe

Since I never use Windows Search (why would I ever need it?), I looked up
how to disable it (why waste resources on something that nobody uses)?

This is, I think, the way to do it, but there may be an easier way.

HKCU\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer\DisableSearchBoxSuggestions=1 This setting disables online web suggestions and results from appearing in
the Windows Search bar, limiting search to local files and applications.

When I went there, I noticed I had long ago turned off notifications. HKCU\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer\DisableNotificationCenter=1 This setting disables the Action Center and notifications in Windows, preventing them from appearing.

I haven't rebooted yet, but what this thread is for is to let people know,
& to ask if there's a better way to get rid of useless Search.exe cycles.

I had already, long ago, set 'Win+I > Search > Searching Windows' to
"Indexer is not running" so I must have turned it off elsewhere long ago.

I don't use cloud accounts and I don't have a MSA so there shouldn't be any search results on the cloud.

In summary, that's what I just did, but is there a better way to disable search.exe so that it never runs and wastes CPU and Network resources?

--- MBSE BBS v1.1.1 (Linux-x86_64)
* Origin: BWH Usenet Archive (https://usenet.blueworldho (3:633/280.2@fidonet)