What services are safe to disable?

gregrocker said:

You'd need to explain what your problems are, because most users see nothing but a light, fast OS in Windows 7. So your complaints stand out for being unusual. However we are always eager to help when an install is less than perfect. The tutorial to get and keep a perfect Clean Reinstall Windows 7 has over 1.2 million users without a single complaint or return with problems by those who stick with the steps.

I gave you that tutorial and one you can use in the meantime to Clean Up Factory Bloatware
which will clean and optimize the OS to try to regain performance. That you didn't take up those opportunities but then complain that nothing is being suggested is strange.

Once you get started on the steps and report back results we will have other suggestions too, as this is an interactive forum which always gets the fix if there is cooperation.

Well I don't get the same glow of perfections from friends on 7, plus, wiping the install to fix something that seems native to the package seems incredibly counter intuitive. Plus, booting the OS with no drivers and nothing installed should be fast and light, nothing is running. It's understandable as an approach, but it's the opposite of what someone should face after using anything for a long time.

In the real world we browse the net, read email, skype family, print documents, edit numbers, watch videos from our cameras, download pictures, maybe even run some CAD for a living. All of that needs software that doesn't come on the disk, and all of that will be blamed I'm sure because before putting all that junk on, the OS was fast and light so sorry to say, that concept is a bit too catch 22 for me.

The clean up page is pretty cool although I have done everything on it already. Manually choking things off at the msconfig is almost mandatory knowledge for any windows user, its the autoexec.bat of today for sure. Still, you can't run a computer and turn everything off. Even if you do, it should fire off anyways once you run its app. CCleaner is also a very neat application, now that it doesn't neuter your registry, everyone should learn it. I don't know about the auto update for Windows though, it's mostly great except like what I saw where the .NET went berzerk and failed to update so now the requests are stacking up and I'm four updates behind on a package I don't even use or need. Things like that shouldn't need my interaction. Like restore points, interacting with updates should be system level stuff I don't see. Don't you think?

Still you seem sincere so here you go, something specific. When opening an explorer just to see files and folders, or when clicking a browser like chrome or firefox, sometimes the computer just goes on vacation for a while and it seems to sit and spin and think for an amazingly long time. I'd say that even without been a needed user, a few seconds is reasonable for something to open, but not 10 or 15 or more than 20. It usually isn't 20 seconds but I have caught it taking that long on firefox twice. Maybe it was updating or something, I don't know, but it doesn't say and I don't get a warning on anything. You have any way for me to peer into my system for stuff like that, to resolve just what it's stuck thinking about? Like I said, its not just one app, stuff like that seems to be system wide, sometimes you click and that circle just twirls and twirls... its seems like an analogy for your brain trying to figure out why things are so slow.

What AV are you using? Have you tried uninstalling it to see how it runs without it or a recommended lightweight AV like MSE?

Otherwise you can go over your system most thoroughly using the Troubleshooting Steps for Windows 7 which should give you important clues and often will resolve problems.

The reason I keep circling back to reinstall is that gives you the most control over your OS performance so that once its setup and running perfectly you can preserve it with a backup image so you never need to reinstall again. Sometimes corruption builds up to where a reinstall is what works best, actually saves time, and then with the backup you know it only needs to be done once right.

whs said:

Well I don't get the same glow of perfections from friends on 7

Sounds like you are going by hearsay. Do you actually have a Windows 7 installation ??

Of course, win7x64 pro since 2010 and what I've posted here are all personal findings, none of this is based on what someone else said

Don't get me wrong, nowhere did I say its all bad, there are some things that are totally welcome improvements. Camera's tend to plug in and work the first time, plug and play stuff as well, loading the driver then shutting down to add a card, that seems robust really... most auto updates don't crater the OS, printing seems to be super reliable... sometimes in XP or could have been 2000, stuff like the printer or NIC would vanish on occasion and that sucked. NT 4 wasn't really known as a super friendly release either, unless you were coming from 3.51, then you were really glad to see so much help. Anyways, some of the weirder windows stuff just doesn't happen anymore, and I skipped both ME and Vista.

That said, when I put the mouse on, a pretty mainstream Logitech, the plug and play worked so well it found it twice. Even putting setpoint on didn't uncover any issues so eventually trying to hunt down why clicking things was wacky and the double click really acted strange was nearly the 8th wonder of the world. Then I found the mouse twice in the devices. Suffice to say, disabling one of those did wonders. Today, I still run with 'one mouse' disabled and haven't looked back. Plus it wasn't all bad news, I never thought to run two mice on one system, now I know it's not a problem and if you own a bluetooth mouse, or any wireless from Logitech, you know why a wired standby is pretty useful.

The AV is Comodo. I have read about issues with it but I have also read about issues on every known brand available so, I'd venture that the only way to avoid any lag due to an AV is not to run one. I'm not that brave yet. I'm sure there is some lag directly due to running Comodo, but I don't feel that is what my issue is today. Disabling it or removing it would probably bump things a bit, but I can't say that's a real fix is it?

I think that over time windows gets buggered up and can't be fixed and this is why the leading remedy always starts with wiping the drive. Booting just takes longer over time, running is slower over time, thinks seem to clog up and just bog down. I've run some pretty lumbering boxes in my time, but they were slow to begin and still the same slow in the end. Today, it feels like you're expected to flush the OS every two years whether it needs it or not, like a cell phone. I get the cell phone thing for sure, but windows.. its been twenty years since win95 and it's amazing to me that my best course of action is to wipe the drive every 24 months.

I would not have Setpoint or Comodo as I've seen nothing but problems with both of those.

As I stated earlier, there is no reason to reinstall any more than doing the one perfect Clean Reinstall Windows 7
because once its set up and running perfectly you can save a Win7 backup image so you never need to reinstall again. We can even help you adjust the image to other hardware.

It seems like you are set in your ways, so be aware that if you're set in XPired ways then you'll not have good luck with Win7 which is a feather light OS by comparison that needs no tweaking and works best with a whole new generation of tools and methods compiled in Clean Reinstall Windows 7

gregrocker said:

I would not have Setpoint or Comodo as I've seen nothing but problems with both of those.

As I stated earlier, there is no reason to reinstall any more than doing the one perfect Clean Reinstall Windows 7
because once its set up and running perfectly you can save a Win7 backup image so you never need to reinstall again. We can even help you adjust the image to other hardware.

It seems like you are set in your ways, so be aware that if you're set in XPired ways then you'll not have good luck with Win7 which is a feather light OS by comparison that needs no tweaking and works best with a whole new generation of tools and methods compiled in Clean Reinstall Windows 7

I never said they were perfect, but they work. Can I program these buttons on my mouse without setpoint?? If you have a better driver believe me I will install it. It might be a POS but I actually use it's functions daily so its overhead is offset easily by its utility. Same goes for Comodo, however all I want is protection from the net, it does nothing else for me. Give me a replacement and it's in.

Besides all that though, I have been on 7 for years... saying I am set in my ways is just trolling. You can twist up what you want, but an OS that doesn't even run with a gig of ram on board is anything but feather light... come on now... 2 G's just so it boots and runs, seriously... it's like we've given up, almost every help page concedes the only way to help yourself is to throw money at this. SSD's, more video, more RAM, every step forward in power has taken a step back in bloat. Imagine someone trying to boot their 386 into win7, how many days would that take... it would be a small miracle if it came up in less than a week.

In any case I'll take this opportunity to note that items 10, 11, and from this link are pretty much the topic of this thread... killing off unnecessary services, features and bloatware so windows 7 runs better... doesn't this simply brings us full circle?

Just my 2 cents:

I've been disabling services for years without any issues through multiple installs on multiple computers. I've never once had an issue. I think it can be quite helpful, especially for launch times if you want to shave off a few ms on startup as many of the services just launch on boot, and don't run again after. Other times, there's some services that just launch background apps you may not need. iTunes for example has Bonjour(service), and iTunesHelper(startup app). They're used for detecting, and syncing external devices. Not everyone has an iPod, iPhone, or iPad so it's not really necessary for everyone to run it. But the default setup is to do so. So even if you don't have another device, you're forced to use performance on it. And these do run constant. I don't see a reason why you'd waste RAM/CPU on something you don't need.

After saying that, its also worth noting that we aren't talking about huge differences in most cases. The biggest effect is on startup, not normal operation. As I mentioned above, most services start on boot, and then stop. So they aren't using crucial performance 5-10 minutes after being on. I'm also not crazy with it either. I avoid turning off anything Microsoft, as many people mentioned before, Microsoft wasn't specific with the services. A service for Windows Media Player could potentially break something completely unrelated to media, AV playback, media sharing, or even anything media related. They just kinda grouped those in. Typically when I do it, I know what to look for. If you know exactly what the service is, and what it does, and you don't need it, then disable it. If you're not sure what it does, sometimes you can open services.msc and check the properties to see if it runs an executable from the "Path to executable" line (also check dependencies tab while you're there). After that, do a google search of the app to learn its use, and what it does/creates/starts. And if you don't get a conclusive answer, don't touch it. That works well for me, and has kept me out of trouble.

At the end of the day though, if you really want to boost your computer, there's a dozen more effective ways.