What services are safe to disable?

[sammy3417]

Hi all,

Can anyone give me any pointers on what services are safe to disable in Windows 7 Ultimate edition..... Would be grateful for your feed back

Thanks

Sam

 

[zigzag3143]

There is a site called blackviper dot com. You can find which are there but remember something that is safe now may not be 6 months from now when you install a new application that needs one of them and chances are you wont remember which.

 

[windude99]

Hi all,

Can anyone give me any pointers on what services are safe to disable in Windows 7 Ultimate edition..... Would be grateful for your feed back

Thanks

Sam

Leave the Windows services alone. You don't want to mess up Windows 7. Try disabling startup items in the startup tab of msconfig.exe

 

[zigzag3143]

Hi all,

Can anyone give me any pointers on what services are safe to disable in Windows 7 Ultimate edition..... Would be grateful for your feed back

Thanks

Sam

Leave the Windows services alone. You don't want to mess up Windows 7. Try disabling startup items in the startup tab of msconfig.exe

When you disable in msconfig it only disables them for the current user. Usually recommended against for that reason.

 

[windude99]

Hi all,

Can anyone give me any pointers on what services are safe to disable in Windows 7 Ultimate edition..... Would be grateful for your feed back

Thanks

Sam

Leave the Windows services alone. You don't want to mess up Windows 7. Try disabling startup items in the startup tab of msconfig.exe

When you disable in msconfig it only disables them for the current user. Usually recommended against for that reason.

Are you talking about the startup programs, or are you talking about the services?

 

[zigzag3143]

Leave the Windows services alone. You don't want to mess up Windows 7. Try disabling startup items in the startup tab of msconfig.exe

When you disable in msconfig it only disables them for the current user. Usually recommended against for that reason.

Are you talking about the startup programs, or are you talking about the services?

He did ask about services right?

Have to consider the skillset of the OP

I gave him a source and cautioned him about the consequences.

 

[pparks1]

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.

 

[zigzag3143]

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.

Most of us believe this way. If you having an issue you should resolve that not try to make a Lite version of win 7.

 

[wanchoo]

There are many services that a user never uses. So what is wrong in discontinuing these services and making many others manual from automatic? If one has patience and discontinues one or two services at a time then heavens are not going to fall. Wait for a few days to see the effect of the service(s) that has been discontinued. If the computer starts behaving erratically after a service is discontinued it could be brought right back.

Discontinuing services is a step forward in our learning process. Trouble only takes place if we discontinue too many of them at a time and if the computer starts giving trouble we don't remember the changes that were made because there were so many of them.

 

[pparks1]

^ The trouble is 2 fold.

#1). Mostly performance won't improve...so it's a bit of work with little to no reward
#2). You "could" disable something today that you won't discover to be a problem for a few months when installing some other software or using a function within a piece of software that you don't often use. And you may not remember that 1 off service that you previously decided to no longer run.

 

[zigzag3143]

^ The trouble is 2 fold.

#1). Mostly performance won't improve...so it's a bit of work with little to no reward
#2). You "could" disable something today that you won't discover to be a problem for a few months when installing some other software or using a function within a piece of software that you don't often use. And you may not remember that 1 off service that you previously decided to no longer run.

Kudo's Pparks.

I concur 110%. Have seen too many dependencies fail. Have spent hours pouring over event viewer logs only to find out a service was disabled a year ago that the new "thing" depended on.

 

[whs]

There are many services that a user never uses. So what is wrong in discontinuing these services and making many others manual from automatic? If one has patience and discontinues one or two services at a time then heavens are not going to fall. Wait for a few days to see the effect of the service(s) that has been discontinued. If the computer starts behaving erratically after a service is discontinued it could be brought right back.

Discontinuing services is a step forward in our learning process. Trouble only takes place if we discontinue too many of them at a time and if the computer starts giving trouble we don't remember the changes that were made because there were so many of them.

The problem is that you do not know what the interconnections are. Examples:

1. In Vista, when you disabled the tablet services (because you had no tablet), the snipping tool did not work.

2. In Win7, when you disable the defrag service, you cannot shrink a partitions.

I highly recommend not to touch the services unless your name is Mark Russinovich.

 

[wanchoo]

If you work with images then an earlier image is always there to fall back upon to put things right. I think the learning process should not be impeded even if there are pitfalls.

As an example take for instance the Remote Registry Service. I know for sure that I am never ever going to need it. Then why should I have it running. There are many more services like it.

 

[whs]

Nothing wrong with experimenting if you take proper precautions. Problem is that the consequences are often only visible weeks later. And worse, people who have no idea how the system works venture into that arena.

 

[wanchoo]

I fully agree. It is like editing of the Registry which however is more frequent. Anyone advising the tweaking of the Registry does so with an almost statuary warning. A similar warning should be accompany anything calling for the tinkering with the services, but it should be even more strict.

Nothing wrong with experimenting if you take proper precautions. Problem is that the consequences are often only visible weeks later. And worse, people who have no idea how the system works venture into that arena.

 

[CNC Man]

And if you are to stupid to use windows you should not mess with the OS!!

There is nothing wrong with disabling unused services!!!!

I have yet to have a problem with a PC and I have been around since the Commodore C16

 

[whs]

And if you are to stupid to use windows you should not mess with the OS!!

There is nothing wrong with disabling unused services!!!!

I have yet to have a problem with a PC and I have been around since the Commodore C16

How do you know which services are unused.

Just as a little test, tell me which services are needed to shrink a partition in Disk Management..

 

[wanchoo]

As you have posted for the first time, I welcome your message.

And I agree with it in toto with a slight modification. I too never had a problem with a PC, that I was not able to lick in the end.

And if you are to stupid to use windows you should not mess with the OS!!

There is nothing wrong with disabling unused services!!!!

I have yet to have a problem with a PC and I have been around since the Commodore C16

 

[gregrocker]

Do not disable any Services as in Win7 any not needed are set to Manual and on fast triggers, part of the genius of Win7's design.

However you can have better performance by running a Clean Boot without freeloaders, as shown in Troubleshooting Steps for Windows 7

 

[exitPr0gram]

Bringin' Back Threads from the Dead!!!

Hi all,

Can anyone give me any pointers on what services are safe to disable in Windows 7 Ultimate edition..... Would be grateful for your feed back

Thanks

Sam

I am interested in doing this as well.

I know there are slight security improvements that you can benefit from and say your running a computer at bare minimum requirements, that slight improvement in performance could make more of a difference compared to computer that most (or some) have.

It's been quite some time since this topic was bought up but i am interested in this as well so i'm bringin' it BACK!!!

Nothing wrong with experimenting if you take proper precautions. Problem is that the consequences are often only visible weeks later. And worse, people who have no idea how the system works venture into that arena.

I agree completely. Experimenting and learning on your own is the best way to learn. Hence the saying "If you want to learn to swim, jump in.)

Honestly I may be in that category you mentioned of "No idea how the system works yet venture in to that arena" but i am on forums to learn and gain knowledge.

I will make my own little statement about how i went about disabling services at the end... after i'm done replying to my "Quotes" that i did to try and help bring the thread back

There are many services that a user never uses. So what is wrong in discontinuing these services and making many others manual from automatic? If one has patience and discontinues one or two services at a time then heavens are not going to fall. Wait for a few days to see the effect of the service(s) that has been discontinued. If the computer starts behaving erratically after a service is discontinued it could be brought right back.



Discontinuing services is a step forward in our learning process. Trouble only takes place if we discontinue too many of them at a time and if the computer starts giving trouble we don't remember the changes that were made because there were so many of them.

The problem is that you do not know what the interconnections are. Examples:

1. In Vista, when you disabled the tablet services (because you had no tablet), the snipping tool did not work.

2. In Win7, when you disable the defrag service, you cannot shrink a partitions.

I highly recommend not to touch the services unless your name is Mark Russinovich.

Then the first thing I would do with this knowledge (if it still applies... the thread is old and more than a few updates have been released) would be to shrink whatever is needed, perform whatever else, then do it disable the service.. I wont deny that this could be an inconvenience if you are constantly managing HDD's.

For defragging i use Defraggler by Piriform.

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.

It takes trial and error sometimes. For the sake of advancing our knowledge, what type of test did you use to try and weight the benefits of shutting down services? I'd ask what services you shut down but i doubt you'd remember.

^ The trouble is 2 fold.

#1). Mostly performance won't improve...so it's a bit of work with little to no reward
#2). You "could" disable something today that you won't discover to be a problem for a few months when installing some other software or using a function within a piece of software that you don't often use. And you may not remember that 1 off service that you previously decided to no longer run.

There are ways to reverse this. Check out my input on the situation at the end.

My input on this:

I am here to learn. If i am wrong here, or any post i make, correct me and give me a good explanation of why i'm wrong.

I type msconfig from the start menu. Go to Services. And disable the services i feel like i do not need. I have used the following sites to help me determine which ones i need and don't need. I'm sure they are not perfect but they seem likes decent guides:

7tutorials.com

and

techrepublic.com

I chose these sites because they tell you what each service does and when you should disable them. It would be nice if we could use this thread to add to the list of "consequences/benefits" of disabling services that are not needed.

Now... As far as "Jacking things up by messing with the Services within Windows" goes... There is ALWAYS system restore and it is not hard at ALL to use.

Just do it before you disable any services.

If I am wrong in any of this let me know.