smart way to manage services in windows 7

[Lord of Rings]

Hello everybody,

I would like to know if there is a smart way to manage services in windows seven. If I want to disable some services in windows 7 and speed up my comupter, I need to spend several hours browsing through the services and read about every single service listed. This way I know what I am exactly doing.

The problem is that the above mentioned method is very time consuming. Is there a better way to manage services in windows seven?

Thank you in advance,
Lord of Rings

 

[LMiller7]

Normally disabling services will not significantly improve performance. You are far more likely to cause problems. The problem is that there is no publicly available documentation anywhere that full describes what each service does. Many do more than the documentation in Service manager states. All documentation you will find is incomplete.

The best way to manage system services is to leave them alone unless you have a specific need to do otherwise.

 

[Kaktussoft]

You can make a script to modify the startup type see How can I configure a services start-up type from the command line? | Systems Management content from Windows IT Pro

You only configure it once... so what's the problem? It doesn't take a lot of time to configure using GUI as well.

» Black Viper?s Windows 7 Service Pack 1 Service Configurations

Services Information : Additional information about all services that came with Windows 7.
Super Tweaks : What I do directly after the installation of Windows 7.
Windows 7 (SP1)

• Custom Services Registry File Tool : A method to apply service settings directly to the registry.
• Registry Files : My “one click” solution to services.
• Services Information : Additional information about all services that came with Windows 7.
• Services Configuration: My background services configuration examples:
  • Default
  • “Safe”
  • Tweaked
  • Bare-Bones

Windows 7 (Retail)

• Custom Services Registry File Tool : A method to apply service settings directly to the registry.
• Registry Files : My “one click” solution to services.
• Services Information : Additional information about all services that came with Windows 7.
• Services Configuration: My background services configuration examples:
  • Default
  • “Safe”
  • Tweaked
  • Bare-Bones

 

[Lord of Rings]

You only configure it once... so what's the problem? ....

Thank you very much for your anwser. But why do you say I should configure the services only once. Whenever I install a new program on my computer, it may start a new service. This change is visible if you start services.msc.

Thank you once again for your answer,
LOR

 

[Callender]

Services configuration

Hi. Well some programs install will install a service that sometimes won't be removed when you uninstall that program. My usual method is to check to see if such a service exists then stop or disable it before uninstalling the program. Occasionally I've had to delete a (non-windows) service manually.

I think that what the forum members with more experience are saying is that you shouldn't mess around with services that are installed as part of windows and if you do mess around with them you should create a system image backup first. I personally tried Black Viper's services tweaks and it did indeed lead to problems. I still disable some services or set them to manual start but in general they should be left alone unless you know exactly why you want to change their start up type.

A couple of examples: Superfetch is disabled because I use a Ramdisk with user temp and system temp files configured to use the Ramdisk. DNS Client Service is disabled because I use a pretty large HOSTS file. These services just shouldn't be disabled on a standard setup machine.

Anyway as it's been mentioned an easy way to apply only safe services tweaks is to use the portable version of:

http://www.synei.com/items/products/service-manager

Be warned that applying anything other than the safe tweaks could lead to problems.

 

[whs]

You are wasting your time. Disabling services that do nothing do not slow down the system. However, I would control the startups and allow only those services that you need - ususally the AV program and those that you put yourself into the startups.

 

[Layback Bear]

I would suggest to leave Windows 7 Services alone. The key words (Windows 7). You don't need or want to do the kinds of things that we use to do in XP.
If by chance you would want to know the default settings look at this Tutorial.

By Brink:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/236709-services-restore-default-services-windows-7-a.html