I noticed that "mds" in Activity Monitor is ALWAYS using at least 20% CPU. Why is this? I guess it's related to Spotlight, which I need to have enabled.
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mds Using 20%+ CPU
- Thread starter BeSweeet
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Yeah, it's Spotlight. Have you tried quitting it? There are other Spotlight alike apps like Quicksilver so you can disable it if you want
Wait, I figured it out 
. CMD+Space brings up the Spotlight box. I type in the name of an application that I'm looking for, press enter, and it opens the application. The Spotlight box is still up there in the background searching for anything else related to whatever it is that I typed. CMD+Space to bring up the box, press escape a few times to make the box go away, and mds is down to 0.0%. While it's sort of annoying, I'm glad I figured it out. Surprised nobody else really noticed something like this (or if it's just me).
. CMD+Space brings up the Spotlight box. I type in the name of an application that I'm looking for, press enter, and it opens the application. The Spotlight box is still up there in the background searching for anything else related to whatever it is that I typed. CMD+Space to bring up the box, press escape a few times to make the box go away, and mds is down to 0.0%. While it's sort of annoying, I'm glad I figured it out. Surprised nobody else really noticed something like this (or if it's just me).Wait, I figured it out
escape? you could just hit delete to clear the text in the spotlight box before you put it away... that way it doesn't search for anything
Yeah. Even after searching for something in Spotlight, and opening something, Spotlight is still in the background trying to search for stuff (hard drive is CONSTANTLY doing random stuff). Bringing up Spotlight, clearing it out, and closing it, will bring mds down to 0.0%, where, if it were left in the background searching for stuff, it would use 10-30% forever.