Windows 7, Vista, XP: Services tweak.

[GOskidmark]

(( Disclaimer )) If you mess up your computer, it is because of you. Not me. This is just some information to help you make your computer do what you want it to do, as fast as possible.

Services are what run in the background when Windows starts up.
40% of these services are for drivers and driver configs. The other 60% can be turned off to save a HUGE amount of RAM and precious processor cycles. Even with a fresh install of Windows there is about 50 services running.

Regardless of whatever version of Windows you are running, it is important that some of these services should be disabled to speed up boot time and improve overall system responsiveness. The more you know about what services do and how many are running, the better your computer will run.

Most versions of Windows can be safely trimmed down with a total of 15 services running in the background without any drawbacks. Don't disable something unless you know what it does first. I have had over 13 years of trial and error with my computers, so I know what works and what does not.

I do not use anti-virus programs or fire walls, and I'll tell you why.
I have had tons and tons of viruses from downloading third party software over the years. Most of the time, just to install the virus on purpose so I can see where it installs to and what it does. Every virus I've ever had installed as a service that loads a .dll file. Disable the service, locate the .exe file and .dll file, delete the registry entry and the virus is gone. Some install to different locations with delete protection, but it's all too easy to get around and delete.

Anti-virus programs are a virus to me. They suck up over 300 megs of ram just at idle. They steal processor cycles even though you're not scanning. They are just inane and no one should ever need one as long as they know what they are doing. Fire walls are useless for me since I use a router. My router has custom firmware and it's set up the way I like it. If you don't feel secure behind your router, by all means leave your fire wall on. Don't come griping to me when some script kiddy attacks you personally and steals your cookies to find out your password to paypal or something. I'm just telling you what I use and what I don't use.

Clean your registry often! If you are installing and uninstalling small programs allot, these programs leave registry entries behind even though you've uninstalled them! The registry is the backbone to Windows. If it is dirty and filled with software entries from seven years ago, Windows will run more sluggish because of the amount of data it has to sift through in the registry.

Off with the services. Hit Ctrl+R on your keyboard. This is the run command. Type in " Services.msc " to start the service editor. Here you will be able to view
all of the services that your computer is running. Do not edit services with msconfig! I don't know why Microsoft added this feature to msconfig because it is useless! Services changes will only be saved while using Services.msc and nothing else. My buddy wrote a whole Website based on editing services. I'll put the link at the bottom of the page, so you can see what you can safely disable or put on manual. Most services can safely be put on manual mode because you don't want it running until you call upon it. Why have a usb camera service running all the time if you only use it once a month? You set this sucker to manual, it will only load when you plug the camera in or run the software that comes with the camera.

(( www.blackviper.com )) - FREE Services configuration website.
(( www.piriform.com )) - FREE Super awesome registry cleaner/Tweaker among other things. It's called " CCleaner ".

Please make this a Sticky.
-GO SkidMaRk

 

[Mark_88]

Good info...I've used this a few times...but I actually prefer msconfig...didn't know it was useless, but I usually turn the services (all non-MS) off and work backwards from there...and I've never found the service running after doing it that way...going to check out the website because you never know until you read something...

 

[Jaymz9350]

you need to be real careful when you start messing with services, there is little to be gained and lots to mess up (I can't find it now but I have read of blackvipers tweaks actually making things slower). Killing start up processes that almost every program has will do more than enough and really on most of today's systems little is really gained there either. Now trying to run a newer OS on older hardware you'll gain more but the service tweaks will still most likely do more harm than good.

 

[GOskidmark]

you need to be real careful when you start messing with services, there is little to be gained and lots to mess up (I can't find it now but I have read of blackvipers tweaks actually making things slower). Killing start up processes that almost every program has will do more than enough and really on most of today's systems little is really gained there either. Now trying to run a newer OS on older hardware you'll gain more but the service tweaks will still most likely do more harm than good.

#1 Allot is gained by shutting off services that you do not use. I have done forty different benchmarks on twenty one different systems, including laptops and Net books. Net books see the largest gain in performance. On my machine with Windows 7, I've freed up over 400 megs of RAM. 400 megs can be the difference of being able to run a game smoothly or choppy.

#2 Black Viper's guide to service tweaking is just a guide. It's not and end all be all guide. Disabling wrong services is what causes foul up's. Never has shutting a service off caused Windows to function at a slower rate.

#3 If you don't know what you are doing, then you will cause something to not work right. For instance disabling network services, or a USB bus controller. Or some other service that you need for Windows to run.

Thanks for playing.

 

[Jaymz9350]

#1 Allot is gained by shutting off services that you do not use. I have done forty different benchmarks on twenty one different systems, including laptops and Net books. Net books see the largest gain in performance. On my machine with Windows 7, I've freed up over 400 megs of RAM. 400 megs can be the difference of being able to run a game smoothly or choppy.

#2 Black Viper's guide to service tweaking is just a guide. It's not and end all be all guide. Disabling wrong services is what causes foul up's. Never has shutting a service off causes Windows to function at a slower rate.

#3 If you don't know what you are doing, then you will cause something to not work right. For instance disabling network services, or a USB bus controller. Or some other service that you need for Windows to run.

Thanks for playing.

If you freed up 400 meg it wasn't just from services (at least not directly) as I said disabling startup apps (which very well may start unneeded services) you can save memory, but in this day and age 400 meg is not much and if it's enough to screw a game up you have too little to be gaming on in the first place. I'm currently sitting at around 2.6 gig out of 4 used, and can game flawlessly with any game ( Vista and 7 will release memory it's using when it's needed else where, it's a good thing, why have RAM sitting around unused when the OS can use it to speed things up) hell I can free up over a gig by just rebooting, and it makes my pc slower.



http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=93657 well my quick search this is all I could find (I know no real proof but neither do your benchmarks). Killing services can slow things down since those services may help the task or as you mentioned by turning to manual have to turn on instead of being ready.

If done right yes you may help in a very insignificant way on most systems but the risk isn't worth it unless you want those extra numbers on a benchmark score, hell I can overclock my cps and gpu and boost benches up great, but in real gaming the difference is barely noticeable.

I was mostly trying to help warn some of the less computer savy as tuning off services you don't know what they are is a good way to screw up your PC.

 

[GOskidmark]

If you freed up 400 meg it wasn't just from services (at least not directly) as I said disabling startup apps (which very well may start unneeded services) you can save memory, but in this day and age 400 meg is not much and if it's enough to screw a game up you have too little to be gaming on in the first place. I'm currently sitting at around 2.6 gig out of 4 used, and can game flawlessly with any game ( Vista and 7 will release memory it's using when it's needed else where, it's a good thing, why have RAM sitting around unused when the OS can use it to speed things up) hell I can free up over a gig by just rebooting, and it makes my pc slower.



http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=93657 well my quick search this is all I could find (I know no real proof but neither do your benchmarks). Killing services can slow things down since those services may help the task or as you mentioned by turning to manual have to turn on instead of being ready.

If done right yes you may help in a very insignificant way on most systems but the risk isn't worth it unless you want those extra numbers on a benchmark score, hell I can overclock my cps and gpu and boost benches up great, but in real gaming the difference is barely noticeable.

I was mostly trying to help warn some of the less computer savy as tuning off services you don't know what they are is a good way to screw up your PC.

The article that you refer to is two years old, and his benchmarks were done on Windows XP SP3. Were his benchmarks made up? Yes. All of his benchmarks were made up bullshit. DO SOME YOURSELF. My numbers are SOLID. I did REAL tests, and REAL benchmarks.

I don't know what world you come from. In my world, on earth, the world of math and science and all things logical, killing services that are not essential frees up system resources. I'm not going to type this anymore. You believe what you want to, but I believe in logic.

G A M E O V E R.
Insert Coin?

 

[Jaymz9350]

The article that you refer to is two years old, and his benchmarks were done on Windows XP SP3. Were his benchmarks made up? Yes. All of his benchmarks were made up bullshit. DO SOME YOURSELF. My numbers are SOLID. I did REAL tests, and REAL benchmarks.

I don't know what world you come from. In my world, on earth, the world of math and science and all things logical, killing services that are not essential frees up system resources. I'm not going to type this anymore. You believe what you want to, but I believe in logic.

G A M E O V E R.
Insert Coin?

I never said it doesn't free up resources, yes it does, but not to a noticeable extent. By the way I'd be curious to see your benchmark results as I have messed with services in the past it i found it to be no way useful.

And even benchmarks can skew real world results, higher bench score based on synthetic tests don't really test how the system will act in real usage.

 

[GOskidmark]

I never said it doesn't free up resources, yes it does, but not to a noticeable extent. By the way I'd be curious to see your benchmark results as I have messed with services in the past it i found it to be no way useful.

And even benchmarks can skew real world results, higher bench score based on synthetic tests don't really test how the system will act in real usage.

Here is some REAL world results.

All test were done on my rig. Windows 7: 6 gigs of DDR2 2-2-2-5 timings.

Cold boot with default services running: 1:20 to desktop.

Cold boot with tweaked services running: 21 seconds to desktop.

Less time = Noticeable Win.

Crysis @ 1600X900 everything MAX

Default service config: 38 FPS Time demo

Tweaked service config: 50 FPS Time demo

More frames per second = Awesome to the power of Rad.

If you've had no luck with tweaking services then you must have the P.I.C.N.I.C. error.

 

[alyssasdaddy]

Not to be a troll or anything but...

The best windows tweak is Format C:

Install linux...

Computers are like air conditioners when you open windows they stop working...

I have upped my production with linux, so up yours..

"This virus requires SP3 would you like to update now?"

 

[GOskidmark]

Not to be a troll or anything but...

The best windows tweak is Format C:

Install linux...

Computers are like air conditioners when you open windows they stop working...

I have upped my production with linux, so up yours..

"This virus requires SP3 would you like to update now?"

I'm not a Windows fan boy, but Linux can't compete with Windows in one aspect. Games.

If I just wanted to browse the internet my whole life, I would install Linux. But, since I have other stuff to do: Watch movies, Install stuff with one click, play games, make music, design homes, watch flash, use HTML5, play some more games... I use Windows.

To install one driver on any Linux port, you have to type sixteen lines of code. That's just stupid. I have stuff to do and games to play. You can play SOME games on Linux. With an application called Wine. But Wine emulates, and it sucks. Fifteen frames per second on Doom? No thanks.

If I wanted to watch something fail at running games, I would just go buy a Mac. " So up yours " WeeoooWEEEEOoo!

If you have such a boner for Linux, then what are you doing here in an article about tweaking Windows services?
Do you miss our awesome world of Windows that much?

Linux is like a pile of crap, it stinks and it sucks at doing anything fun...

 

[BRUTUS_T_HOG]

thank you. i was planning on doing this today and this post made it easy

 

[GOskidmark]

thank you. i was planning on doing this today and this post made it easy

Glad I could help you out sir.

 

[alyssasdaddy]

OMG You Win.....

Come down buddy i don't hate you, Windows Does..

PS: I Can do most of that except Design Houses Not my thing

 

[fastpakr]

I'm not a Windows fan boy, but Linux can't compete with Windows in one aspect. Games.

If I just wanted to browse the internet my whole life, I would install Linux. But, since I have other stuff to do: Watch movies, Install stuff with one click, play games, make music, design homes, watch flash, use HTML5, play some more games... I use Windows.

To install one driver on any Linux port, you have to type sixteen lines of code. That's just stupid. I have stuff to do and games to play. You can play SOME games on Linux. With an application called Wine. But Wine emulates, and it sucks. Fifteen frames per second on Doom? No thanks.

If I wanted to watch something fail at running games, I would just go buy a Mac. " So up yours " WeeoooWEEEEOoo!

If you have such a boner for Linux, then what are you doing here in an article about tweaking Windows services?
Do you miss our awesome world of Windows that much?

Linux is like a pile of crap, it stinks and it sucks at doing anything fun...

Do you plan on sticking around this site long? With your attitude towards other posters, I suspect not. Consider having a little respect towards other people's opinions, or finding another place to spend your time.

 

[Jason]

Do you plan on sticking around this site long? With your attitude towards other posters, I suspect not. Consider having a little respect towards other people's opinions, or finding another place to spend your time.

But he obviously thinks he is superior to others even though he spends too much time on computers and not women.