Many Windows services are enabled by default. A lot of these services, however, are not required for your machine to run properly. You should review the services running on your Windows XP/Vista/7 computer and disable those that you don’t need.
One way to see which services are running is to use the Services applet found in the Administrative Tools menu. In Windows 7, click Start and type “Services” in the search box, then select Component Services. In the console’s left pane, click Services (Local) to display the list of services, shown in Figure A.
Figure A
Use the Component Services console to identify the services running on your system.
Important information contained in the Services console includes the service Name, Status, and Startup Type. You can get more details on a service by double-clicking on it to bring up the service’s Properties, shown in Figure B.
Figure B
The Properties sheet for the service provides detailed information.
You can stop the service by clicking the Stop button. If you are sure that you don’t need the service, click the down arrow in the Startup Type drop-down list box and set the service to Disabled. If you are not sure if you need the service, change the Startup Type to Manual. Then you’ll have the option of manually starting the service if you find that you need it.
Another way of controlling which services start is using the msconfig utility (see Figure C). In Windows 7, click Start and in the search box, type msconfig. Click msconfig.exe.
Figure C
Use the System Configuration utility to control the behavior of services.
Note that some secure Microsoft services cannot be disabled. These are considered essential for running the computer. For a list of some Windows 7 services you may be able to disable,
One way to see which services are running is to use the Services applet found in the Administrative Tools menu. In Windows 7, click Start and type “Services” in the search box, then select Component Services. In the console’s left pane, click Services (Local) to display the list of services, shown in Figure A.
Figure A
Important information contained in the Services console includes the service Name, Status, and Startup Type. You can get more details on a service by double-clicking on it to bring up the service’s Properties, shown in Figure B.
Figure B
You can stop the service by clicking the Stop button. If you are sure that you don’t need the service, click the down arrow in the Startup Type drop-down list box and set the service to Disabled. If you are not sure if you need the service, change the Startup Type to Manual. Then you’ll have the option of manually starting the service if you find that you need it.
Another way of controlling which services start is using the msconfig utility (see Figure C). In Windows 7, click Start and in the search box, type msconfig. Click msconfig.exe.
Figure C
Note that some secure Microsoft services cannot be disabled. These are considered essential for running the computer. For a list of some Windows 7 services you may be able to disable,
