Tweaking Windows 7

Services

Services
Why: Use less system resources, increased security
Why not: You may lose functionality.

I’ve really been dreading writing this section because I know I’m going to catch some flack for it. There are various guides around the net telling you disable this or that service without informing you of the consequences. Just try following some of them and watch your error logs, oops, they disabled error logging too. Some of these guides are quite complex and still come up short on advice that is good for your particular scenario. There aren’t very many services I’m going to recommend to disable. Here is why:
1 – Windows 7 manages services far better than Vista. Startup and memory use in particular.
2 – Networking, internet services, and external devices (things you plug in to your computer) have all increased in ability and complexity.
3 – Users all do something different with their computers. To correctly write an all-out services tweak guide would require several dozen configuration recommendations.
4 – I’m specifically avoiding disabling anything that has do do with ipv6 (see the networking section for more info).

We’ll start off with what I’ve got disabled on my main computer.
This is a fully networked computer but does not use HomeGroup.
Some of these were disabled by default.
(*I disabled Superfetch because I’ve got an SSD.)

This is what I’ve got on my laptop.
It is not networked. Some of these were disabled by default.

Recommendations
These are recommendations of Services that are safe to disable but are enabled by default.
If you have any doubts about disabling these then set them to Manual.

Networked Using HomeGroup  –  Safe To Disable
Distributed Link Tracking Client
Media Center Extender Service
Offline Files
Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service

Not Networked  –  Safe To Disable
(see Network & Internet section of this guide for more info)
Computer Browser
Distributed Link Tracking Client
Function Discovery Resource Publication
HomeGroup Provider
Media Center Extender Service
Offline Files
Server
SSDP Discovery
TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper
UPnP Device Host
Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service

Services You May Want Disable Over Security Concerns
These are set to Manual by default.

ActiveX Installer –  ActiveX is considered by many to be a security risk. Disabling this turns over the security settings to the individual application IE, Office, etc.
It is tied to UAC so is unneeded and probably unused if UAC is disabled.

Remote Registry – I’ve always recommended disabling this. Considered by many (including myself) to be a security risk.

The table below lists the services that start automatically (exported straight from the services window as a .csv file)
With the exception of the above 2 services they are the only services you need to concern yourself with.
If you do not see a particular service in your Window do not worry. Not all services are in all Windows 7 versions.

Configure Or Disable Services
Press the Windows + R keys and type services.msc .
Change the order of Services by clicking on the main tab in each column (Name, Description, Status, Startup Type, Log On As).
Clicking the Status tab will order the services by started or not.

NEXT >