Unnecessary Services

[Guest]

Having a subscription to PCWorld affords many new ideas to explore. One that
I have yet to jump into is deciding or getting recommendations on the
services which automatically load at startup. PCWorld states there are
services that can be "turned off or disabled" for this reason, "If the
service is not necessary, why load it at startup?" Turn it off or disable the
service to conserve memory.

Is my logic correct?

I have been asked by my father if there are services which can be disabled
otr turned off, meaning the service is not loaded at startup. He is seeing
stability issues.
I have checked ,msconfig for programs which are unnecessary TSR (terminate
and stay resident). Now I need to look into finding out which services can be
turned off at startup.

I doubt it being so simple as to turn off all programs in MSCONFIG, except
explorer and systray;

Recommendations/advice anyone?

I fully expect any Microsoft techs to tell me not to turn off any services?

 

[R. McCarty]

I doubt that an active Service would cause stability issues. Many
times Services that aren't required can have their Start mode changed
from Automatic to Manual. However that won't prevent them from
running, if called on.

There isn't a magic list of "Core Services", each PC will vary based
on hardware and software and network configuration (If any). There
are two web sites that have details & information on XP services.
http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm
http://www.theeldergeek.com/services_guide.htm

Before starting any mode changes, Run MMC, Services and export
the "Original" Service map to a text file and print out. Many times you'll
experiment and not remember how it was when you started.

 

[Alex Nichol]

Having a subscription to PCWorld affords many new ideas to explore. One that
I have yet to jump into is deciding or getting recommendations on the
services which automatically load at startup. PCWorld states there are
services that can be "turned off or disabled" for this reason, "If the
service is not necessary, why load it at startup?" Turn it off or disable the
service to conserve memory.

Is my logic correct?

I have been asked by my father if there are services which can be disabled
otr turned off, meaning the service is not loaded at startup. He is seeing
stability issues.

An accepted source on Services is www.blackviper.com, but use his
recommendations with care and thought. IMHO he tends to overdo it. If
you decide you do not want a specific service, set it to Manual, not
disabled. If it is not needed it will not load, but if it is it can be
started up. One specific case is Windows Update, which requires that
'Automatic Update' be on Startup automatically even though you intend
only to get updates 'manually'

For me, ones that can be out of use on a stand alone
machine (or probably non-corporate LAN ) are

Background Intelligent transfer, set on Manual; Windows Update now uses
it
Routing and remote access
Both of which seem implicated at times in heavy usage of CPU

SSDP Discovery and
U PnP
provided you don't need it for a UPnP router or Internet Connection
sharing

Alerter (which is *not* needed for error alerts on the local machine)

Indexing (unless the use of context in searches is an actual benefit)

IMAPI CD Burning (if third party CD burning is implemented)

Messenger (against the pop-up ads, though of course NetBIOS should be
blocked in a firewall, this is better than nothing - and is doing no
good in the sort of setups mentioned)

QoS RSVP (not that it causes the trouble that street wisdom suggests -
but it doesn't do anything positive)