diff --git a/src/configure b/src/configure
index f54bf26c..853c8497 100755
--- a/src/configure
+++ b/src/configure
@@ -1359,8 +1359,7 @@ Optional Features:
                           creates them on (part of) your data set. You also
                           need to set up appropriate mappings in the
                           configuration.
-  --enable-idxthreads     Enable multithread indexing. This can somewhat boost
-                          indexing performance.
+  --disable-idxthreads    Disable multithread indexing.
   --enable-camelcase      Enable splitting camelCase words. This is not
                           enabled by default as this makes phrase matches more
                           difficult: you need to use matching case in the
@@ -4341,10 +4340,8 @@ _ACEOF
    fi
 fi
 
-# Enable use of file extended attributes.  Not by default as extended
-# attributes are little used for now, and looking for them is not
-# completely trivial: we have to use ctime instead of mtime to detect
-# changes.
+# Disable use of file extended attributes. With xattrs disabled we can use
+# mtime instead of ctime to look for file mods. Default is enabled.
 # Check whether --enable-xattr was given.
 if test "${enable_xattr+set}" = set; then :
   enableval=$enable_xattr; xattrEnabled=$enableval
@@ -4367,7 +4364,7 @@ fi
 if test "${enable_idxthreads+set}" = set; then :
   enableval=$enable_idxthreads; idxthreadsEnabled=$enableval
 else
-  idxthreadsEnabled=no
+  idxthreadsEnabled=yes
 fi
 
 
diff --git a/src/configure.ac b/src/configure.ac
index 0bf3222c..0dff1ac9 100644
--- a/src/configure.ac
+++ b/src/configure.ac
@@ -181,10 +181,9 @@ fi
 # absolute performance (more about impact on usability and total 
 # resources used).
 AC_ARG_ENABLE(idxthreads,
-    AC_HELP_STRING([--enable-idxthreads],
-   [Enable multithread indexing. This can somewhat boost indexing 
-   performance.]),
-        idxthreadsEnabled=$enableval, idxthreadsEnabled=no)
+    AC_HELP_STRING([--disable-idxthreads],
+   [Disable multithread indexing.]),
+        idxthreadsEnabled=$enableval, idxthreadsEnabled=yes)
 
 if test X$idxthreadsEnabled = Xyes ; then
   AC_DEFINE(IDX_THREADS, 1, [Use multiple threads for indexing])