Quick service question

[HyperHacker]

Browsing through the services, I noticed an "Error Reporting Service". What happens if I disable this?

Also how can I add a service? I see a few added by programs I installed.

Edited March 26, 2006 by HyperHacker

[chilifrei64]

I dont have any hard evidence behind this statement but I always shut it off that service on all my pc's and I dont get the "Send this to Microsoft" dialog box after an application fails on any of them.

[net_user]

if an application crashes....a popup dialog box states "do you wish to report this error to microsoft" yes or no

bla bla ba

if you disable this service you will not get this popup or what ever you wanna call it....

so disabling it is ok

as for installing a service....

download the 2000 server recource kit...

extract the srvinstw.exe from the compmgmt.cab

and you can install or remove a service

[Andromeda43]

That's it! It's just there to annoy the heck out of you.

Disable it!

Here's a few more that you can normally disable:

Here's my short, short list of services to disable for a stand alone PC, not on a network: From the RUN box, type in Services.msc , then maximize the window to full screen size. Then scroll down the list of services to each item on the following list and right click on an item and then click Properties. In the properties box you can Stop a running service and then set the action box to "Disable". Then Apply the change and OK the window to close it. Move down the list to the next item and repeat the process. When done, close the entire window and reboot your PC.

Clip book

Computer Browser

Error Reporting Service

Messenger

Performance Logs and Alerts

Portable Serial Number

Remote Registry

Remote Desktop Help Session Manager

Routing and Remote Access

Server (leave this on for a local network)

Smart Card Helper

System Event Notification

Task Scheduler

Universal Plug and Play Device Host

Upload Manager

Web Client

Windows time

Wireless Zero Configuration (disable if you will never use a wireless network)

Having too many redundant services running in the background can really slow down your PC.

Kill off as many as you safely can, for a much better running PC.

I got tired of doing this by hand on every computer tune-up that I do, so I wrote a nice little program to do it for me. Saves oooodles of time.

I added that to my "Care Package" on my Download Site.

Happy Computing,

Andromeda

[Gouki]

I posted this Excel document on nLite forum for a person that wanted to clean up some services. Check it out.

This settings are used at my machines, therefor, they may not work properly on your computer. Be carefull using it (even if you disable 1 that you need, you can still change it back).

[HyperHacker]

Eh, I don't have Excel... Nice list up there too but I don't want to just disable everything without knowing what all it does. That caused problems last time, like when I disabled RPC, a lot of installers wouldn't run.

I disabled that error report message though; it's just a "blahblah has encountered an error and needs to close" message with Close and Debug buttons. Would that still show up, or would the program just close or something?

[Gouki]

You dont have to disable everything without knowing what it does. The list is just for you to have an idea of what can be done, if you'r uncertain if you should disable a service or not, just Google for it and read what it does, then you decide if you can disable or not.

As for the RPC, you are right. It is a very important service that will cause some 'damage' if it is disabled.

The Error Reporting Service is for the Pop-Up you get when an error occurs (the application crashes). I you disabled the service, you will not be asked to send information to Microsoft again (no more Pop-Up).

[Andromeda43]

When you run "Services.msc" you will get an explanation of each service in the left hand pane.

For a more in-depth explanation of each service, check out "Black Viper's" web site.

Or, get "Windows XP Services", by Gene Goldring. Here.

http://www.beemerworld.com/tips/servicesxp.htm

That was my primary reference when deciding what services to shut down for myself and all my customers.

Then when I was finally set on a certain group of Services that were safe to shut down, I put them into a batch file to speed up the process. Now it only takes me a couple of seconds to do the job that formerly took me about fifteen minutes. (and, I don't have to worry about making any mistakes in the process.)

It's always a good idea to make a Restore Point before you edit the registry or shut down services,,,, just in case you need to "back up" to your previous settings.

Cheers

Andromeda

[HyperHacker]

Yeah, I disabled the "send error report" a long time ago. I just get a message box. Disabling the service hasn't changed that; I guess it's only for sending reports. (So then why's it running? >_>)

[nmX.Memnoch]

Just a word of caution about Windows Time. This isn't something you should disable in an Active Directory environment. The Windows Time service keeps the time sync'ed between the Domain Controllers and all Workstations.

You also shouldn't disable Remote Registry if you're in an environment that uses SMS.

Lastly, the service you should be disabling for the potential UPnP vulnerability is the SSDP Discovery Service instead of the Universal Plug and Play Device Host Service, although the latter can safely be disabled as well.

Some that can be disabled if you don't use dialup and/or VPN:

Telephony

Remote Access Auto Connection Manager

Remote Access Connection Manager

And a few other various services (that may be disabled by default):

NetMeeting Remote Desktop Sharing

Routing and Remote Access

Secondary Logon (if you never use "Run As")

Fast User Switching Compatibility (unless, of course, you use Fast User Switching)

XP SP2 automatically disables the Alerter, Messenger, Clipbook and Telnet services. One thing I've found out about the Alerter and Messenger services though is that in a networked environment nbtstat -a workstation_name doesn't return the full results if these services are disabled. The same applies to nbtstat -A ip_address.