What services are safe to disable?

I think you'd be surprised at how quickly the prices are coming down on SSD's. We had a 120gb posted here last week from Tiger Direct for $49 and are starting to see 240gb for under $100. This puts them within reach. Watch Tiger Direct, Best Buy and New Egg.

I would try running MSE with the Windows Firewall to see if it improves performance. The only reason I would use a custom firewall is if there are extra requirements since the Win7 firewall is perfected.

Everything that works best in tens of thousands of installs we've helped with here is compiled in Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 .

Our threads are never closed but live on for others to learn and contribute which is why its important they not encourage risky changes.

Actually hearing of any performance improvement from editing Services would be a good start before advising those changes in Win7, and we are still waiting after five years to hear of any.

gregrocker said:

I think you'd be surprised at how quickly the prices are coming down on SSD's. We had a 120gb posted here last week from Tiger Direct for $49 and are starting to see 240gb for under $100. This puts them within reach. Watch Tiger Direct, Best Buy and New Egg.

I would try running MSE with the Windows Firewall to see if it improves performance. The only reason I would use a custom firewall is if there are extra requirements since the Win7 firewall is perfected.

Everything that works best in tens of thousands of installs we've helped with here is compiled in Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 .

Our threads are never closed but live on for others to learn and contribute which is why its important they not encourage risky changes.

Actually hearing of any performance improvement from editing Services would be a good start before advising those changes in Win7, and we are still waiting after five years to hear of any.

Wow 240GB SSD for under 100? That's awesome.

I can't lie, i haven't been in the market for one in awhile. And like i said, instead of beefing this machine up, i might just get a whole new computer. The day i get an SSD will be the day that i can get a case and motherboard that can hold an AWESOME graphics card to play my games at EXTREME settings

I can't lie though... if i see an SSD made by Intel for around bucks, i'd probably buy it.

pparks1 said:

Leave services alone. In lots of testing, I was almost unable to prove any benefit whatsoever to shutting down services and in most cases the system performed worse with services disabled.

Can you please provide a link to where it sais a system performed worse with certain services disabled? In this thread, i have listed all the ones that i have disabled, whether for security, or for performance.

I feel like i'm running in circles on trying to get an answer an what detrimental effects disabling services (that you do NOT need) will have on a Windows 7 machine.

PParks is a respected member here who echoes the opinion of almost everyone who has in-depth experience with Win7.

It is not up to us to prove that there are not problems with hacking Win7. We have stated our position clearly against disabling any MS Services by consumers.

The burden of proof is on those who want to disable MS Services to show that there is any appreciable performance improvement and this has never yet been shown that I have seen. Instead we see random hit-n-run suggestions by hackers to disable a Service which causes unintended consequences, often months later.

I do feel like we are going around in circles, especially when you just now PM to ask if I have any problem with this after I've repeated myself here ad nauseum. Had you even read this thread until now?

gregrocker said:

PParks is a respected member here who echoes the opinion of almost everyone who has in-depth experience with Win7.

It is not up to us to prove that there are not problems with hacking Win7. We have stated our position clearly against disabling any MS Services by consumers.

The burden of proof is on those who want to disable MS Services to show that there is any appreciable performance improvement and this has never yet been shown that I have seen. Instead we see random hit-n-run suggestions by hackers to disable a Service which causes unintended consequences, often months later.

I do feel like we are going around in circles, especially when you just now PM me to ask if I have any problem with this after I've repeated myself here ad nauseum.

Well i'm sorry that i PM'd you to see if you had some information for me. Maybe it was "taboo" to do so. Wont message you again, promise.

Regardless, I will post if i run in to any problems on my personal home PC with the services that I've disabled. Which, when it comes right down to it, is all that i'm trying to figure out. Its known it can provide security and performance. Whether it's a "Big enough improvement" to tell is not the point. Improvement in security or performance is improvement in security in performance, no matter how you look at it. Especially on low end systems.

And by you saying "we see random hit-n-run suggestions by hackers to disable a Service which causes unintended consequences, often months later." are you insinuating that actual "Hackers" recommended to disable services with verified malicious activity cause by disabling said service?

No but I consider such inadvisable service edits to be hacking.

Again where is any proof of performance improvements you persist to claim resulting from MS Service edits?

You were provided with actual performance improvements you can achieve with your system

gregrocker said:

No but I consider such inadvisable service edits to be hacking.

Again where is any proof of performance improvements you persist to claim resulting from MS Service edits?

You were provided with actual performance improvements you can achieve with your system

When you say "Hacking" do you mean tweaking Windows? Or "hacking" as in doing something with malicious intent? I simply don't understand how disabling a Microsoft service you never use could open you up to an attack. Corporate companies disable services ALL the time. The only difference is that this is a HOME pc.

I do not have "Proof" of any performance/security improvement but neither have i seen a link indicating the opposite which are you guys recommending not to make any changes..

If you'd like, if you have a way of me testing the performance/security improvements just tell me and i'll do it so that we can get this settled once and for all and stop bickering over whether or not user's should disabled MS services.

exitPr0gram said:

pparks1 said:

Leave services alone. In lots of testing, I was almost unable to prove any benefit whatsoever to shutting down services and in most cases the system performed worse with services disabled.

Can you please provide a link to where it says a system performed worsewith certain services disabled? In this thread, i have listed all the ones that i have disabled, whether for security, or for performance.

I feel like I'm running in circles on trying to get an answer an what detrimental effects disabling services (that you do NOT need) will have on a Windows 7 machine.

Benchmarking (with its flaws) might prove that you have no performance loss with services disabled. You cannot prove (to my satisfaction) that your list of disabled services and your system stability data is meaningful to every other computer*. Thus your labor would not settle anything "once and for all".

*Because your computer has usage patterns and 3rd party software that other computers might not have.


About your list of disabled services; I was not expecting any individual member here to research each and every item. I was hoping that (with enough sets of eyes) someone could say: "Oh, I had <insert a specific service> disabled too and this negative event happened......" The problem is, this forum does not have enough members with current experiences in this type of hardening. There might be some members that have MS services disabled, but they are not willing to admit/defend it here; and/or they've not noticed this thread.


As for the things that I've learned:
1) My employer still uses GPO to disable certain services on certain computers instead of using SCCM. I've not asked why, but horror stories like this one, might be the reason.
2) I should not post when I'm really tired...
...I've not stuck to a level of citing references that I prefer
...I did not always stay on topic.
3) I should not have mention people leaving the forum without being able to cite references.
4) There are other things that I've learned too, but I don't want to dig up the references

I should also clarify, that my AD domain admin duties are infrequent (maybe once or twice a month). That is not my full time job. I only know how to do the things that I need to do. It is a very small subset of what an AD domain admin could do. Its relevance to the thread was/is: W7 computers that are used to perform AD domain admin duties have some MS services disabled where I work. I'm not going to list those services because doing so could get me fired :-(


gregrocker and Layback Bear,
Thanks for your patience with me

The problem with disabling services is that there is no way of knowing for sure everything that each service does. Microsoft has never published this information. Anyone disabling system services is in uncharted territory and you will have to make your own way. Every service serves some purpose and when disabled you must accept that some functionality will be lost. Will that functionality be important to you is a difficult question. It depends on what devices and applications you are using and how the system is configured. The possibilities are virtually endless.

I do have some experience with disabling services from my younger days but will not post it (do not ask) as the information may no longer be relevant and is likely to be misinterpreted. I am not interested in experimenting with this.