Services.

[Surreal Killa]

Which services would you recommend to disable? And what ones should you definitely keep?

[newsposter]

well. you can get started at www.blackviper.com. BV has 'matured' somewhat in the past 2 years and his 'recomendations' are more functional and useful than they used to be. Be sure to look up other opinions like theeldergeek.com for contrasting or verifying points of view.

The major point being; XP pretty much works for everyone out of the box. Once you start killing services it becomes highly personalized for YOUR use and at that point, all you can do is experiment and keep good notes as you go.

Edited November 1, 2007 by newsposter

[BikinDutchman]

A few years ago PC Magazine recommended to disable the following:

• Netmeeting Remote Desktop Sharing service ,

• Remote Desktop Help Session Manager service,

• Remote Registry service,

• SSDP Discovery Service,

• Universal Plug and Play Device Host service.

They are not very useful and impose a security risk.

It is what I typically disable in some 40 PCs and never any issues.

[extrabigmehdi]

well for security,

what BikinDutchman advised is fine.

Now for performance/convenience :

* Disable indexing service. Not very usefull, just kill the hard drive faster.

* system restore. If you worry about backups, use a serious tool like acronis true image.

With sytem restore you just loose disk space, and that's not very useful in case of serious problem.

* error reporting service. You know these popup that ask if you want to report the problem to microft after an application crash. It collect so slowly informations... If you don't care about helping microsoft just disable it.

Don't forget to remove also "dr watson".

* terminal services: it induces lot of useless disk activity. Moreover it's more secure to disable if you don't use it.

* automatic updates: frankly you should avoid to use automatic updates on an nlited install. Personnally, I tend to re-instal every 3 month and I integrate hotfix at same times.

What you should keep absolutely:

* Cryptographic services

* Dcom Server Process Launcher

* Plug and PLay

* Remote Procedure Call

* Windows Management Instrumentation

These are the service that are always started, even in safe mode.

I'll be adding :

* task scheduling. Essential for prefetching which improve xp performance.

There are other service that you must keep depending of your needs.

For instance keep "window audio" if you want sound

[shajunxing]

My experience is that only four services is needed:

event log, plug and play, rpc and sam

If you want to enable network, start server, workstation, computer browser and network connections; If you want to use dial network, open remote access connection manager, remote access auto connection manager and telephony.

And so on ...

[zipzap]

My experience is that only four services is needed:

event log, plug and play, rpc and sam

If you want to enable network, start server, workstation, computer browser and network connections; If you want to use dial network, open remote access connection manager, remote access auto connection manager and telephony.

And so on ...

Thanks for info also but whille there remove Internet Explorer to improve security.

[GrofLuigi]

You amateurs.

GL

[koolezt]

@GL: Thanks for extremely useful link. Pity the price is gratuitous sarcasm. I'm sure you restrict all your enquiries and observations to your field of specific expertise.

@all: The link is really authoritative. Check it out.

[extrabigmehdi]

hi koolezt,

I don't see how the link mentioned by GL could be useful for someone that wish to nlite XP.

Even if XP "seems to work" while killing critical process, you'll have soon or a later a system that makes a regular user upset.

[AgiHammerklau]

I remember, to have seen this text on computerbase and several other pages (not sure about unattend.com?).

They provided a list for "normal", "safe", "surfing"...

Have to google myself again, where I got the table from, I´m still using, for W2K.

Agi Hammerklau

[Sancho]

Help and Support plus Logical Disk Manager can be set to manual without any problems.

ALG can be set to disabled, Windows firewall still runs normally without it.

If you don't use Windows networking, disable Computer Browser and Workstation, probably should leave Server as manual.

Wireless Zero Configuration of course should be disabled if you don't have a wifi card.

[extrabigmehdi]

ALG can be set to disabled, Windows firewall still runs normally without it.

What about other firewall (software based)?

According to Black Viper website, the safe setting is manual.

It's set to manual on my system, and despites this it always starts.

If you don't use Windows networking, disable Computer Browser and Workstation, probably should leave Server as manual.

Balck Viper: computer browser disable, WorkStation automatic

[Sancho]

Balck Viper: computer browser disable, WorkStation automatic

I don't care what "Balck Viper" says, I've never seen Workstation used without Windows networking components enabled or on a domain. In fact, I don't even have the service because I nLited it out last year.

I've never seen ALG used, despite running Windows' and other firewalls. Frankly I am confused as to why it is really there. It seems like something that 3rd party makers don't care for.