Disabling Windows 7 Services

What do you use in case you have problems with the OS - any imaging software? I think too many on this forum seem to have the 'don't alter anything, you'll probably die!' and that Windows 7 is perfect as it stands. No defrag, no controlling pagefile, no altering services etc. - of course many of us out there in the wilderness do not believe this and tweak to our hearts content AND manage to have useable systems that for some reason aren't always falling over or riddled with malware. Perhaps it is all down to the user.

I regularly get a 20 second boot with all Services set to defaults.

The genius of Win7 is that all Services not absolutely needed at boot are set on fast triggers. Why try to outsmart something this smart to begin with? You'll likely outsmart yourself unless you want to do everything "manually" with a computer.

Beta testers learned the hard way that there is no performance clawback to be had at all a la XP and early Vista by tweaking Services. Win7 has become the Black Viper - the ultimate tribute.

On low RAM computers I still edit Visual Effects to eliminate sliding, animation, dragging intact and other hogs, but never Aero which gives elegance at a bargain. Yet some prefer the Dodge Dart XP methods to Win 7's Lexus. We even see those who default to steel gray file cabinet Win2000 graphics by unchecking Use Visual Styles.

For those who can't resist compound tweaking, be sure to bookmark this: Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) Posting Instructions - Windows 7 Forums. There's about half a day's wait while other tweakers are being helped.

Enjoy Windows 7!

Yeah, I have to agree with that completely. That's one of the reasons for my post, that it can be done for long-term w/ no consequences. There are too many silent owners doing things like this that may be intimidated by the 'doom and gloom' crowd.

Years ago I felt the same. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to logon, or my performance would suffer, or 3 months down the road something strange would happen and troubleshooting it would be a nightmare. But nothing has happened so far, same with my previous WIN2000 system which was similarly tweaked and which I used for a decade.

As for imaging software, I use the Win7 built-in imaging - I take a snapshot every month or so. I can't use the system restore function because it's switched off, though I may turn it back on - it's pretty handy.

But the whole point of having two cheap computers was for me to have an inexpensive O/S backup I could just swap in if I have an issue I didn't foresee (like hardware). Perhaps I could Ghost over the main HD to a spare HD as a third alternative.

Couldn't agree more severedsolo. Personally I'm more like FastBoot, I enjoy tweaking and will go to great lengths to squeeze every drop of performance out of my computer. That said, I don't touch anything until I absolutely know for sure what its purpose is - which means I end up on Google and Wikipedia a lot. :) It's a fun way of learning and teaching myself some new tricks too.

The problem with so many other users is that they blindly follow recommendations and tips they pick up somewhere without knowing what they're really doing. It's partially the fault of users who won't educate themselves first and are too quick to trust shady (or simply outdated) sources, and partially the fault of those who spread half-baked advice without in-depth explanations on the Internet to begin with.

I don't agree...

Running it this way for a year and my previous WIN2000 box for much longer, has convinced me that some of these services, while noble in nature, just aren't needed.

I find Windows, like cars, can be lightened & made to perform better in a cumulative fashion. Installing that carbon fiber hood does nothing to increase street performance. But switching to a lighter spare tire, lighter wheels, lighter brakes, a dry battery, lighter performance seats, etc. has a big effect on the total weight of the car - so it performs better w/o having to add more power.

I do agree, those 100 plus services I've done away with are negligible for performance - individually. But cumulatively, they are constantly snapping on at different times doing stuff I don't need done. None of that stuff is needed by me, and if i do need it I'll turn it on, use it and shut it the heck off. Of course, knowing what they do is half the fun. Remember, I'm using a 7 year old box with old technology and it still boots in just half a minute.

Using the car analogy again, do I really need that golf club set in the trunk? If I'm on a whim and want to golf on my way back from work it would be useful to cart them along. I wouldn't notice them much if I have a powerful sports sedan, but I would if I drove a Corolla w/ only 90 horsepower. So, I'll leave those clubs at home and pick them up when I need them. They're still there, I'm just not lugging them around wasting gas, space and resources.

I dunno, now you're kinda exaggerating...Of course nobody needs 100+ services and there aren't even that many running on a fresh Win7 install. Plus the point has been made that unused services, even if running, just don't do anything.

Every second, your CPU spends a few nanoseconds looking at these services and decides they have nothing to do. Then it moves on.

So you shave off those 5 or so nanoseconds by disabling a bunch of services. There are 1,000,000,000 nanoseconds in one second so I really don't buy the argument that it makes any kind of noticeable difference at all.

To further your own analogy, that's like taking 5g off a 1,000 ton truck and saying "look, it's lighter."

Well, I'm not saying this old box is a missile. There's nothing to exaggerate, I'm just stating what I've done.

Buy it or not, the concrete proof is in my performance. My other box isn't slow, but it's pokey and its boot-up time is over two minutes. Rendering movies takes longer and when I listen to music while I'm working, it occasionally cuts the sound. I don't have that problem with my stripper and they're the same box.

So I'm actually getting a measurable performance difference, no denying it.