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Disabling unnecessary services from running at system start-up

This was written with Windows XP Pro in mind, but seeing as all the latest versions of the Windows OS are based upon the NTFS file system, native to Windows NT, it may probably work for Windows Vista and Windows 7.

The method could be a little different, but the principal may still apply.

There are quite a few services, that run automatically at system start-up unnecessarily.
They can be disabled quite safely, which can only save system resources, possibly enhancing the performance of your PC.

It is also very simple to do, as explained below:

[Note: It may be a good idea, to make a note of any changes that you make. then if you do experience any problems, you can always
reset the changes back to their original settings quite simply.]

Click on Start, then Run, and type:

services.msc

then click OK to display the Services [Local], pop-up box.

Before stopping any Service, double click on it, and then select the Dependencies tab,
to establish whether any system components depend on it, by checking in the lower display pane.
If the lower pane is empty, then it should be farly safe to first Stop the Service and then select Disable
from the Startup Type entries in the drop-down list.

For an example, these are the following Services, that I have reset to Disable on my own PC,
after first clicking on the Stop button, under the General tab of the Properties display.

Including, 13 instances of the svchost.exe program.

Disabled Services

Alerter - Notifies selected users and computers of administrative alerts.
Automatic Updates - Enables the download and installation of Windows updates automatically.
Clipbook - Enables ClipBook Viewer to store information and share it with remote computers.
DCOM Server Process Launcher - Provides launch functionality for DCOM services, for distributed network applications to communicate with each other.
Error Report Service - Allows error reporting for services and applications running in non-standard environments
Fast User Switching Compatibility - Provides management for applications that require assistance in a multiple user environment.
Messeger - Transmits net send and Alerter service messages between clients and servers. Not related to Windows Messenger.
Network DDE - Provides network transport/security for Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) for programs running on the same PC or different PC's.
Network DDE DSDM - Manages Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) network shares.
SSDP - Enables discovery of UPnP devices on your home network.
Portable Media serial No. Service - Retrieves the serial number of any portable media player connected to your PC.
UPNP - Provides support to host Universal Plug and Play devices.
Remote Access Auto Connection Manager - Creates a connection to a remote network whenever a program references a remote DNS or NetBIOS name or address.
Remote Desktop Help session Manager - Manages and controls Remote Assistance.
Remote Procedure Call [RPC] Locator - Manages the RPC name service database.
Remote Registry - Enables remote users to modify registry settings on your PC.
Routing and Remote Access - Offers routing services to businesses in local area and wide area network environments.
Security Center - Monitors system security settings and configurations.
SSDP Discovery Service - Enables discovery of UPnP devices on your home network.
Task scheduler - Enables a user to configure and schedule automated tasks on this computer.
Telnet - Enables a remote user to log on to this computer and run programs, and supports various TCP/IP Telnet
Universal Plug and Play Device Host - Provides support to host Universal Plug and Play devices.
Windows Time - Maintains date and time synchronization on all clients and servers in the network.

There are also quite a few other Services, that I have reset to Manual start, and if you take a look at them,
you may find that some of these do not need to run automatically at system start-up on your own PC.

Once again, double click on the Service, and then select the Dependencies tab,
to establish whether any system components depend on it, by checking in the lower display pane.

Stop the Service, if it is running, then reset to Manual the services that you do not want to start automatically,
by modifying the Startup Type entries in the drop-down list.

If by any chance, you experience any problems, you can always reset it back to the original setting.

Also, if in any doubt at all, you can always leave the currently running Service as it is.

Hopefully, this may have enhanced the performance of your PC somewhat.

I hope that this may have been of some interest to some of you here.

Nice one man. Done ages ago xD
This can really better the prformance of your system.

(10-05-2009, 08:52 PM)NinjaGeek Wrote: [ -> ]Nice one man. Done ages ago xD
This can really better the prformance of your system.

Thanks, it does make some sense to do it..;)

Thanks a lot, dude.
I never thought to do this, really, even though I've seen your tutorial before. Now that I just reformatted my computer, I figured I'd optimize it early. Thanks a thousand

Disabling unnecessary services from running at system start-up - Part 2

This list is intended as a supplement, to the previous thread that I posted on this topic.

This is an additional list of the Services, which do not always have to start automatically at system start-up.

Again, written with Windows XP in mind, but may also work with Windows Vista and Windows 7.

This time however, instead of Disabling the Service, the Service can be reset to Manual,
as most of the entries in the list below are. but some of these Services, may already be set to Manual start, by default.

It won't be the same on every PC and depending on what software you have installed on your own PC and your system configuration,
you will have to establish which of these Services you can either safely Disable or reset to Manual
start, after checking what their Dependencies may be.

Once again, click on Start and select Run, then type Services.msc and click on the OK button.
Double click on the Service to display the Properties of the Service, under the General tab.
Then click on the Dependencies tab to see what Dependencies if any, are displayed in the lower pane.
Once you have established that, click once again on the General tab, to either Stop, Start, Pause or Resume
the Service you want to modify.

Some Services, may have no Depedencies at all, showing in either the upper or lower display panes,
and with some of them, both the Start and Stop buttons are greyed out. and with these type of Services,
I think it could be a good idea to leave them as they are.

If you are in any doubt, in the first instance, you can always Stop the Service first and leave it for a little while,
to see if there are any adverse effects, before eventually resetting it to Disabled or Manual start.

I would once again suggest that before you make any changes to your system configuration at all,
that you should save a back-up copy of the Registry, create a System Restore Point and also save a detailed log,
of all of the changes that you make, to a text file, as this is a good point of reference, should there be any problems with what you have done.

I think this is good practice in any case, because if you keep a log of all of the modifications that you make to your PC, it can be helpful,
should there be any problems with the system, caused for example, by the installation of a new application, or changing a system configuration setting.
Rather than having to depend on remembering every single thing that you do on your PC, you can always monitor, both negative and positive effects,
of what you have done, by referring to the log file, should you decide to keep one.

Additions to previously disabled services

Application Layer Gateway Service - Provides support for 3rd party protocol plug-ins for Internet Connection Sharing and the Windows Firewall - Manual.
Ati HotKey Poller - No dpendencies - No Description - No start or stop - Manual.
Background Intelligent Transfer Service - Used by Windows Update and MSNExplorer - Manual.
Computer Browser - Maintains an updated list of computers on the network and supplies this list to computers - Manual.
Distributed Transaction Coordinator - Coordinates transactions that span multiple resource managers, such as databases, message queues - Manual,
Extensible Authentication Protocol Service - Provides windows clients Extensible Authentication Protocol Service - Manual.
Health Key and Certificate Management Service - Manages health certificates and keys (used by NAP) - Manual.
HTTP SSL - This service implements the secure hypertext transfer protocol (HTTPS) for the HTTP service, - Manual.
IMAPI CD-Burning COM Service - Manages CD recording using Image Mastering Applications Programming Interface (IMAPI). - Manual.
Indexing Service - Indexes contents and properties of files on local and remote computers; provides rapid access to files - Manual.
Logical Disk Manager Administrative Service - Configures hard disk drives and volumes. The service only runs for configuration processes and then stops - Manual.
MS Software Shadow Copy Provider - Manages software-based volume shadow copies taken by the Volume Shadow Copy service. - Manual.
Net Logon - Supports pass-through authentication of account logon events for computers in a domain - Disabled.
NetMeeting Remote Desktop Sharing - Enables an authorized user to access this computer remotely by using NetMeeting over a corporate intranet - Disabled.
Network Access Protection Agent - Allows windows clients to participate in Network Access Protection - Manual.
Network Connections - Manages objects in the Network/Dial-Up Connections folder, in which you can view lan/Remote connections - Manual.
Network Location Awareness [NLA] - Collects/stores network configuration/location info and notifies applications when this info changes - Manual.
Network Provisioning Service - Manages XML configuration files on a domain basis for automatic network provisioning - Manual.
NT LM Security Support Provider - Provides security to remote procedure call (RPC) programs that use transports other than named pipes - Manual.
Performance Logs and Alerts - Collects performance data from local or remote computers based on preconfigured schedule parameters, - Manual.
then writes the data to a log or triggers an alert - Manual.
Print Spooler - Loads files to memory for later printing - Disabled.
QoS RSVP - Provides network signaling and local traffic control setup functionality for QoS-aware programs/applets - Manual.
Removable Storage - No description - Disabled.
Smart Card - Manages access to smart cards read by this computer - Disabled.
Telephony - Provides Telephony API (TAPI) support for programs that control telephony devices and IP based voice
connections on the local computer and, through the LAN, on servers that are also running the service - Manual.
Terminal Services - Allows multiple users to be connected interactively to a machine as well as the display of desktops and
applications to remote computers. The underpinning of Remote Desktop (including RD for Administrators),
Fast User Switching, Remote Assistance, and Terminal Server - Disabled.
Uninterruptible Power Supply - Manages an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) connected to the computer - Disabled.
Volume Shadow Copy - Manages and implements Volume Shadow Copies used for backup and other purposes. - Manual.
Windows Image Acquisition [WIA] - Provides image acquisition services for scanners and cameras - Manual.
Windows Installer - Adds, modifies, and removes applications provided as a Windows Installer (*.msi) package - Manual.
Windows Management Instrumentation
Driver Extensions - Provides systems management information to and from drivers - Manual.
Wired AutoConfig - This service performs IEEE 802.1X authentication on Ethernet interfaces - Manual.
Wireless Zero Configuration - Provides automatic configuration for the 802.11 adapters - Manual.
WMI Performance Adapter - Provides performance library information from WMI HiPerf providers - Manual.
Workstation - Creates and maintains client network connections to remote servers - Manual.

All together, with the Services that were previously Disabled, I now have a total of 58 Services,
that do not run automatically at system start-up, which I would imagine, saves a fair amount of system resources.

The number of Services, that you may be able to either Stop or Disable, on your own PC, will, once again,
depend upon the software that you have installed and your system configuration.

Once again, I hope that this may have been of some interest to some of you here.

Thanks for this man and nice signature! Keep em comin'

(10-10-2009, 03:26 AM)Headshot Wrote: [ -> ]Thanks for this man and nice signature! Keep em comin'

Thanks for the positive feedback there, I appreciate it!