Memory and CPU consumed by cidaemon.exe

System Restore can get you out of alot of problems.  However a deleted registry key can get you into alot of problems if you remove the wrong one.  And if thats the case, SysRestore wont even help, so be careful.  There are alot of programs out there that delete registry keys, everyone has their own preferernces.  I used the free version of this program http://www.jv16.org/  for years.  However it is no longer free, but it is the safest cleaner I have found for new users.  Now, I personally use System Mechanic, its a little more complicated and I dont recommend it for newer users.  There is another one that is highly rated, called Registry Mechanic.  Do a search on the internet to find them.  I would also do a search at Google for learning how to back up the registry.  Just search for Backing up XP registry and you should get some info.  Kip

Thanks. Sounds like a good idea.

I have never used a registry cleaner - please give me more info about all this. Is this cleaner helpful in tracking down everything related to Daemon Tools in the registry?

If something goes wrong, I guess system restore will restore entries deleted by mistake?

/Mikael

Thanks again.

Perhaps someone else can recommend a free good registry cleaner and provide some info on how to use it for this particular purpose.

/Mikael

Sorry, double post. Must learn not to do this so often..

Message Edited by JRosenfeld on 10-29-2003 08:43 PM

Cidaemon.exe is a Windows XP file. I have it on my PC, running two instances in services, as you say, but I did not install any Daemon software that you mentioned in your first post. It is related to the indexing service: Right clicking on the file, properties, it says Indexing Service filter daemon, Microsoft, version 5.1.2600.0. If I stop the indexing in computer manager, Cidaemon.exe drops out of the list in task manager. When I start the indexing service, it reappears.

To reduce indexing service load while you are working, right click my computer, click manage. In the window that opens, click + next to Services and Applications, highlight Indexing service. In the action menu click stop. then, in the action menu, click All Tasks, Tune Performance. check the radio button 'used occasionally', (or use customize). click OK; in Action menu click start. With the setting 'used occasionally', the indexing service will pause whenever you are using the PC and only start about a minute after the system is idle, i.e. you are not doing anything. You can check that if you highlight indexing service, look in the right pane under the column status (expand window to the right if you don't see it). Assuming that you have started it, it might say started. If you click your mouse, or type, or scroll or anything else, after a few seconds it will change to 'indexing paused (User active), started'; if you then leave your PC alone for a minte, it reverts to started.

If you don't want to have the indexing service running (it speeds up search if you use search a lot), you can diable it from starting in services.

I would not bother with a registry cleaner for this problem.

Thanks, that's it! I turned it off and now everything's fine.

Search in WXP is unacceptably slow even with the index service on (and working). I have a fast PC with 2,7 GHz etc.

It seems strange that a problem with the index service cidameon showed up after I installed the program Daemon Tools, which lead me in the wrong direction.

/Mikael

To have search use the index catalogue, and provide very quick search results, you do have to set it up and use it accordingly. In my view, indexing service in Windows has gotten a bad name (constantly interfering with work, working the drive, slowing down computer, search slow, etc.), mainly because its proper use is obscurely referenced and people don't know how to use it to its full potential.

First thing is to check that you have an index that catalogues the whole hard drive. On my system, there are two indexes, one called dSupport set to catalogue C:\Program Files\Dell\Support\UI\Articles. That one is used by the Dell Support software. The second one is called System, set to catalogue the whole drive C:\. If you don't have that, you can create it, look in the help file in Computer Manager, it's easy, but too long to explain here.

Next, you have to set up Search. Click Start, Search, files and folders (or in Windows Explorer, search on the menu). Click change preferences. If the second line does not say 'without indexing services' (if it says that it is set to use indexing services!!), click on it and check yes use indexing service. Then in the the third option, 'change files and folders search behaviour', check advanced. Finally, back in search, under more advanced options, check the first three boxes to search in hidden files and folders, subfolders, etc.

Now to really use the index query in search, (once the drive has been indexed, of course), if you want to search for a  file, instead of typing the file name in 'All or part of a file name', leave that blank and use an index query command in the second box, e.g. @filename then the name of the file, click search. Or if you want to find files containing a word or phrase, type @contents followed by the word or phrase. (of course, it will only look in folder and subfolders you've indicated in the Look in box; usually I start at C:\ or \My documents). There are other commands to search for files by title, author, etc.

Note that the indexing service only indexes files that it considers to have some text in or associated with it, so this method would not necessarily find all files. If you use the 'All or part of a file name' box, it will find the non-indexed files, but slowly, because it then just searches the drive.

To indicate the speed of using Search properly, two examples:

@filename *.exe searched on C:\ found 1,348 files in less than 3 seconds on my system.

I happen to have a lot of Office files that refer to a guy called Hutchins. @contents hutchins returned 277 files instantaneously (just the time to fill the pane).

I don't think that can be described as slow, do you?

The full index of C:\ does take up quite a bit of disk space, 337MB in my case, but I have 120GB, so it does not worry me too much. The Dell index uses only about 7 MB, but of course it only finds things catalogued in the one subfolder.

You can read all about this topic, in the help file in Computer Manager (right click my computer, click manage. Help menu, Help Topics, contents tab, open the Indexing services book). 

Message Edited by JRosenfeld on 10-30-2003 12:27 AM

just corrected a couple of typos.

Message Edited by JRosenfeld on 10-30-2003 12:33 AM

JRosenfeld-

Thank you very much for posting some very useful information about changing the indexing settings and using the index catalogue for searches. Much appreciated!

Rob