Windows 7 default scheduled tasks - which to disable?

trale · 01 Dec 2009

I'm running Win 7 ultimate 64 bit.

I'm taking a peak into the default Task Scheduler tasks to see what my OS thinks is a good idea to automatically run occasionally.

In my earlier systems (XP), I've pretty much disabled all scheduled tasks to improve performance and decrease annoyance.

Now with the the beefy hardware on my new system, I'm making some allowances for safety precautions, but I would still like to turn most of it off. I'm leaving the System Restore settings intact, but so far I've turned off the defrag task, "customer experience..." task, and a few others.

But I am not familiar with a lot of these other tasks - like "Diagnostics" and "DiskDiagnosis"

There is a tutorial or guide somewhere that explains what each of these tasks are and which is perfectly safe to disable?

bobtran · 01 Dec 2009

I have found "Black Viper" web site to be a very good reference related to tuning if taken with a little caution.

Windows 7 Service Configurations by Black Viper

logicearth · 01 Dec 2009

trale said:

In my earlier systems (XP), I've pretty much disabled all scheduled tasks to improve performance and decrease annoyance.

That may have been required for Windows XP, it is not required for Windows 7.
Disabling services and scheduled task will not improve performance in Windows 7.

Newt · 01 Dec 2009

logicearth said:

trale said:

In my earlier systems (XP), I've pretty much disabled all scheduled tasks to improve performance and decrease annoyance.

That may have been required for Windows XP, it is not required for Windows 7.
Disabling services and scheduled task will not improve performance in Windows 7.

Could you elaborate on that?

logicearth · 01 Dec 2009

Windows 7, started back in Windows Vista have new resource managers. Introducing new levels of priority background task run in low priority levels for all resources, RAM and I/O even CPU time. While the resources a background task needs is free it will be given that resource as long as nothing else is using the CPU or that resource. If it is given that resource but then a higher priority process (like your games?) comes around and ask for that resource, the background task instantly gives it up.

Only third-party, bad Windows citizens applications need to be disabled. Those that are running out-of-the-box on Windows are all good Windows citizens.

DeaconFrost · 01 Dec 2009

[QUOTE=logicearth;415969]

trale said:

Disabling services and scheduled task will not improve performance in Windows 7.

Correct, which is why QuackViper's website should be avoided at all costs.

Newt said:

Could you elaborate on that?

There isn't much to elaborate on. If you take a look at what makes Vista/Windows 7 different from XP, you'll quickly see that the two sides are VERY different, and should be treated as such. Vista and Windows 7 self-tune, and have services running to enhance and maintain performance.

The best advice for tweaking Vista and Windows 7, and always has been, is to leave it alone.

Newt · 02 Dec 2009

[QUOTE=DeaconFrost;416264]

logicearth said:

trale said:

Disabling services and scheduled task will not improve performance in Windows 7.

Correct, which is why QuackViper's website should be avoided at all costs.

Newt said:

Could you elaborate on that?

There isn't much to elaborate on. If you take a look at what makes Vista/Windows 7 different from XP, you'll quickly see that the two sides are VERY different, and should be treated as such. Vista and Windows 7 self-tune, and have services running to enhance and maintain performance.

The best advice for tweaking Vista and Windows 7, and always has been, is to leave it alone.

Point taken.That's good advice.Vista was perfect and doesn't need to be tweaked and Windows 7 is also perfect and doesn't need any tweaks.

DeaconFrost · 02 Dec 2009

I certainly wouldn't call them perfect, but there's very little, closer to nothing that needs to be done in the name of performance. We all have our customizations that we do, but there aren't any performance tweaks...at least nothing that will yield any results. In fact, following some of those guides can hurt performance.

rover3500 · 02 Dec 2009

That just isn't right,there are definite tweaks you can make to personalize ur setup to speed it up.Not everyone can,as alot of people need most of everything running.If u want to speed up ur program loading for one,turn off compatibility checking service which is known to slow program loading times.There are a few more,but there are also alot on the net that either don't make a difference or can make things worse.Disable multimeter scheduling as well,but u have to take away dependency in registry.Read about that here:

Code:

http://www.pcwintech.com/node/141

logicearth · 02 Dec 2009

rover3500 said:

Disable multimeter scheduling as well,but u have to take away dependency in registry....

That is an old Vista problem that is fix in Windows 7. Disabling it will have no effect on performance. Better off just leaving it alone. Even so, it is configurable: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/948066