Delayed loading of services?

[BigMan]

I'm running Windows XP Pro SP2 + auto updates on and it seems to me that
some services get started too late. For example, when I logon and I try to
start any program I notice some delay while loading the program. When I
start Task Manager I can see the alg.exe, mmd.exe and mmc.exe processes
appear for a while and then disappear. Alg.exe and mmd.exe are the processes
of the Application Layer Gateway Service, Machine Debug Manager
respectively. I'm not sure what mmc.exe is. Anyway, isn't it strange for
services to load that late? I thought all services should start before users
may log in. Am I wrong?

 

[Wesley Vogel]

mmc.exe is Microsoft Management Console. Why do you have it starting at
boot?
----

[[The Machine Debug Manager runs as a service and is loaded when your
computer starts. If you do not use your computer for debugging purposes, you
can safely turn off the Machine Debug Manager.]]

OFF: How to Turn Off Machine Debug Manager, Mdm.exe
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;321410

Machine Debug Manager Service
http://www.theeldergeek.com/machine_debug_manager.htm

[[Filename: mdm.exe
Program Title: Machine Debug Manager
Comments: Used by developers for debugging. Those who have encountered it
have unchecked it with no degradation in performance. May cause your
computer to "hang" if you have MS Visual Studio
installed and this disabled because it appears to take over error handling -
hence the U recommendatioon. Can also be listed as MDM7. ]]
http://www.windowsstartup.com/wso/detail.php?id=1515

 

[Tom]

I'm running Windows XP Pro SP2 + auto updates on and it seems to me that
some services get started too late. For example, when I logon and I try to
start any program I notice some delay while loading the program. When I
start Task Manager I can see the alg.exe, mmd.exe and mmc.exe processes
appear for a while and then disappear. Alg.exe and mmd.exe are the
processes of the Application Layer Gateway Service, Machine Debug Manager
respectively. I'm not sure what mmc.exe is. Anyway, isn't it strange for
services to load that late? I thought all services should start before
users may log in. Am I wrong?

Alg.exe is the builtin firewall service. If you have your own firewall, use
that, and Windows will turn that off. Machine Debugger is not needed at all
(unless you debug java script). Disable it in services, and remove it from
your startup, and it will save some resources. Mmc.exe is what you have
running when you are viewing the services through Computer Management.

As for services starting late; that may be because you have little memory to
load them at startup, and they load when other services finish theirs at
Windows boot up time.

 

[BigMan]

Alg.exe is the builtin firewall service. If you have your own firewall,
use that, and Windows will turn that off. Machine Debugger is not needed
at all (unless you debug java script). Disable it in services, and remove
it from your startup, and it will save some resources. Mmc.exe is what you
have running when you are viewing the services through Computer
Management.

As for services starting late; that may be because you have little memory
to load them at startup, and they load when other services finish theirs
at Windows boot up time.

Hmm, I think that 512MB RAM should be pretty enough for all services to
start up at boot time...
I checked the dependencies - Alg.exe does not depend on any service, and
mdm.exe depends on RPC only. Since RPC is a core service it must be up and
running long before I log in, and so mdm.exe has enough time to start up
too...
I've also noticed that other services (not included in Windows XP) also run
too late, e.g. WinRoute.exe. I've been working winth WinXP Pro for a couple
of years and this is the first time I've seen services loading that late ...
I've been administrating WinRoute for some months (on other PCs) and it
always started before users could log in (as a matter of fact all services
started at boot time on those PCs). I suspect some hardware problem or a e
driver interfering here.
Nevertheless it's fine to have a system that starts up that fast, I think
this is very peculiar and I with I knew the reason... Any ideas and comments
are welcome!