Solved Reducing the amount of processes running

[Roman5]

Hi. I've got a clean new reinstall on my laptop from my Dell installation disc of Windows 7 Pro x64, with all the stuff installed that I mostly use and everything is running nice and smooth. I'd like to be able to reduce my task manager processes down to early 60's, like it was at the MS Updates stage and before I started installing my programs. My boot time, while it will never be SSD fast like my desktop, is not too bad, around 49 to 55 seconds. It's a Dell Vostro 3550 with i5 2410M, 4GB ram and I replaced the factory harddrive with a WD black 500GB about a year or so ago. It had slowed down to 4 minutes before I formatted! But I'd like to speed it up more. I've disabled all but the most necessary things in msconfig/startup. 10 things enabled, 13 disabled.

There's always about 75 or so processes running. Perhaps that's perfectly normal and acceptable, I don't really know?

With Google Chrome open with only one tab, that shows 5 processes of Chrome.exe. Two tabs shows 7 processes.

svchost.exe, always 15 instances running (system, local service and network service).

conhost.exe, 2 instances.

csrss.exe, 2 instances.

All other processes seem to have just one instance each.

I know that svchost shouldn't be messed with. Is it really necessary to have them all running though and can any of them be terminated or stopped from running in the first place? And Chrome, I don't understand why there are so many.

If there are any suggestions here I can try which might be regarded as risky, I don't mind tinkering because if anything goes wrong, I have Acronis incremental backups of the whole system as of last night, that I can easily restore in 10 minutes. Thanks for any help.

 

[LMiller7]

Each instance of svchost.exe hosts one or more system services. You have no control over which instance hosts which service. I would avoid messing with this. The benefits are low and the risks are high. Many services do more than the documentation states.

In Chrome tabs showing pages on the same website will share a process. Those on different websites will have a separate process. Plusg ins etc will also have their own process. This was a design decision to improve stability.

Aside from controlling startup programs there isn't much you can do.

 

[DarKnight]

Hi. I've got a clean new reinstall on my laptop from my Dell installation disc of Windows 7 Pro x64, with all the stuff installed that I mostly use and everything is running nice and smooth. I'd like to be able to reduce my task manager processes down to early 60's, like it was at the MS Updates stage and before I started installing my programs. My boot time, while it will never be SSD fast like my desktop, is not too bad, around 49 to 55 seconds. It's a Dell Vostro 3550 with i5 2410M, 4GB ram and I replaced the factory harddrive with a WD black 500GB about a year or so ago. It had slowed down to 4 minutes before I formatted! But I'd like to speed it up more. I've disabled all but the most necessary things in msconfig/startup. 10 things enabled, 13 disabled.

There's always about 75 or so processes running. Perhaps that's perfectly normal and acceptable, I don't really know?

With Google Chrome open with only one tab, that shows 5 processes of Chrome.exe. Two tabs shows 7 processes.

svchost.exe, always 15 instances running (system, local service and network service).

conhost.exe, 2 instances.

csrss.exe, 2 instances.

All other processes seem to have just one instance each.

I know that svchost shouldn't be messed with. Is it really necessary to have them all running though and can any of them be terminated or stopped from running in the first place? And Chrome, I don't understand why there are so many.

If there are any suggestions here I can try which might be regarded as risky, I don't mind tinkering because if anything goes wrong, I have Acronis incremental backups of the whole system as of last night, that I can easily restore in 10 minutes. Thanks for any help.

Nothing increases the boot up time more than start-up programs.You should disable as many of them as you can.
As LMiller7 said,you should not mess with the processes that belong to system,that may get your system crashed. But there are several services in those 70,that can be freely "ended" .Any software has its own process(processes), If you have enabled 10 things in start up ,then there will be at least 10 processes that can be "ended", in those 70. So simple,end those processes when you don't need them

 

[Roman5]

Alright then, thanks. Well, it was easy enough to disable non essential startups, but I looked through processes and services and am a bit lost as to what to fiddle with. Guess I'll leave those.

 

[Layback Bear]

Could you post a picture like this from your computer?

This tutorial by Brink should help.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/9733-screenshots-files-upload-post-seven-forums.html

Messing with Windows 7 Service usually causing nothing but problems.


and like this?

 

[Roman5]

Hi Layback Bear. Here you go. In Services, I'd already unticked a couple of Adobe and Google updaters.
Be interested to know if you think I can untick anything else that might make some noticeable improvement. Or if you tbink there's something that needs to be re-ticked.

 

[Layback Bear]

Just as I thought.

Way to many things checked marked.
I would suggest un-checking everything except your security programs and reboot.

Those thing you un-check will start when need but not until.
You have got them running in the background all the time even when not needed or used.

 

[DarKnight]

Hi Layback Bear. Here you go. In Services, I'd already unticked a couple of Adobe and Google updaters.
Be interested to know if you think I can untick anything else that might make some noticeable improvement. Or if you tbink there's something that needs to be re-ticked.

Open Task Manager,go to "Processes" and click (Memory(private working set)) ,this will get your processes sorted by memory consumption.Now you will be able to simply identify the services,that consume much RAM.
In these services,you might be able to find a process/processes that can be freely ended without causing any issue. For example,disabling a service that uses 100.000k RAM could free up your system much more than disabling a meaningless process that uses 500K RAM.
So ,I'd suggest you to check your services in Task Manager or post the screen here and I'll try to find those "useless" services,good luck!

 

[LMiller7]

Avoid modification of system services. The benefits of doing this are very limited and the risks high.
Many services do more than the documentation states. Disabling a so called "useless" service may end up disabling important functionality.

It is very difficult to determine the memory used by an individual service hosted by svchost.exe.

Edit: I have had unpleasant experiences with disabling services and do not wish to repeat them.

 

[Roman5]

Thanks for the help guys. Ok, here's what I have for you. Updated screenshots of my startup, services, processes and Memory (private working set).

Startup things I think need to stay ticked:

FF Protection Application, tells laptop to tell harddrive if the laptop is falling.

Microsoft security client.

Alps pointing device because it disabled my Dell touchpad software completely when I unticked it. Still worked, but no touchpad settings.

Epson status monitor, otherwise it never shows up in my notification area icons.

Virtual Clone Drive, otherwise my ISO's keeps dismounting on boot up.


More Startup things I've just disabled:

Disabled Microsoft Windows Script Host. Not needed at startup?

Disabled Intel Common User Interface, 3 instances.

Disabled USB 3.0.


Services:

Left alone and hid all Microsoft services.

Disabled everything except Malwarebytes. Maybe even that can be disabled?



What I've noticed. Processes are far less now so that's good.

Reboot time hasn't changed really, always between 50 and 54 seconds. Sometimes longer but that's dependent on the shutdown.

The problem seems to be in the shutdown.

With nothing to close, ie, straight after getting back to the desktop, I'll reboot, it goes straight to the shutting down screen but always hangs on that for 15 to 20 seconds. Sometimes much longer, even up to 45 seconds, but mostly 15 to 20 seconds. I don't know if there's a way to cut down that shutdown time? It certainly seems to takes longer to get past the shutting down screen just after I've made any adjustment in msconfig. But I think there have been other times where it randomly seems to take too long to get past that screen. I timed booting from cold and that is about 35 seconds give or take. So if it was possible to shave 10 second off the shutdown time, that could make my reboot time about 45 seconds or less. But I suspect that's not doable. Very, very occassionally I've had 47 to 49 seconds.

 

[Layback Bear]

Your specs show a desktop but yet you seem to be using a touch pad???

From your post #10

FF Protection Application, tells laptop to tell harddrive if the laptop is falling.

Your page file and processes running look good now.
Leave Malwarebytes checked.

**Remember**
Your updates of programs will have to be done manually now.
It's easy to do. I check my security programs several times a day.
It only takes a few seconds and be done when doing other things on your computer.
------------

A varied shut down time by a few seconds can be very difficult to figure out because their are so many things that can cause this to happen and they can vary from shut down to shut down. It happens on my systems and I have never figured it out. To me it's not worth worrying about.
Sometimes my shut downs are only 4 to 6 sec and other times it 30 to 40 sec. In my life a few seconds one way or the other is not earth shattering.

My systems setting are probably different than yours and I shut down or reboot a few times a day. I do not use Sleep/Hibernation and they are turned off.

 

[Roman5]

Yeah sorry, my system specs are misleading. I added those ages ago when I was still using my desktop. I've been using my laptop mostly these days.

I guess you're right about varying shutdowns. I won't worry too much about it, but it's a bit annoying at times. Like just now I got home, cold booted, no problem, about 35 seconds. Then used restart-time.vbs to reboot with, and it hung on the shutting down screen for the best part of a minute. By the time it got back to the desktop, it was 118 seconds. Rebooted again, was about 80 seconds. Just don't get it.

edit: rebooted just now after posting this reply and got 48 seconds, lol. 'Shutting down' screen was about 12 seconds. It kinda looks like it reboots faster after it's all settled down rather than immediate rebooting.

edit: just got 45 seconds reboot time. Seems like goal achieved! Thanks guys for the help, much appreciated.

 

[GokAy]

See if this speeds up the shutdown - http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/717-shut-down-speed-up.html.

Also check this registry key (1 - means to clear it, will increase time):
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management
"ClearPageFileAtShutdown = 0"

 

[Roman5]

See if this speeds up the shutdown - http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/717-shut-down-speed-up.html.

Also check this registry key (1 - means to clear it, will increase time):
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management
"ClearPageFileAtShutdown = 0"

Thanks! Will read through that link.

About the regedit, can you clarify. Mine is already at 0. Did you mean I should change it to 1 or leave it at 0?

 

[GokAy]

Leave it at 0, just needed to check.