We have posted service guides for Windows XP and Vista in past and now its turn of Windows 7. In this tutorial we'll learn about the services which are not essential and can be safely set to MANUAL to speed up your system:
1. Right-click on Computer icon on desktop and select Manage, it'll open a new window. Now go to Services & Applications -> Services. You can also open the same from Administrative Tools -> Computer Management. Or you can directly open "Services" list by providing services.msc command in RUN or Startmenu search box.
2. Now you can set the unnecessary services to DISABLED or MANUAL. Just double-click on any service and select the desired option in Startup type list box.
NOTE: Always set the service to MANUAL, never disable it, so that whenever Windows needs to start a service it can easily start and use it. If you set any service to DISABLED, Windows will not be able to start it and will give some error messages.
Here is a list of services that can be safely set to MANUAL:
- Application Experience
- Computer Browser (If your computer is not connected to any network)
- Desktop Window Manager Session Manager (If you don't use Aero theme)
- Diagnostic Policy Service
- Distributed Link Tracking Client
- IP Helper
- Offline Files
- Portable Device Enumerator Service
- Print Spooler (If you don't have Printer)
- Protected Storage
- Remote Registry (Always disable it for Security purposes)
- Secondary Logon
- Security Center
- Server (If your computer is not connected to any network)
- Tablet PC Input Service
- TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper
- Themes ( If you use Windows Classic theme)
- Windows Error Reporting Service
- Windows Media Center Service Launcher
- Windows Search (If you don't use Windows Search feature frequently)
- Windows Time (If you don't want to update system tray clock time using Internet)
PS: You can see the details of each service to determine whether you should disable it or not.
Further read:
Speed Up Windows 7 – Master Tutorial to Make Windows 7 Super Fast
This article was posted by VG in following section: Windows 7.
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Mosh Jahan
Windows 7 sensibly has many non essential services preset to Manual. Microsoft is clearly taking note of the XP/Vista tweaks people have come up with.
I also always disable (or manual) DNS Client service. If you're not on a corporate network or using your own DNS server, you can turn off this service. This service caches DNS queries but in reality you will not notice. I use a hosts file to block many ad serving domains and the DNS Client service never was one to work well with large hosts files.
John
I set all the above to manual, the next day i got hacked and the hacker blew up my cpu, thanks for this..
John is an idiot
I set all the above to manual. The next day i won the lottery and now I'm rich and happy. Thanks for this..
masrudi
Thanks Vishal...i want to try these
linda w
You write:
"NOTE: Always set the service to MANUAL, never disable it, so that whenever Windows needs to start a service it can easily start and use it. If you set any service to DISABLED, Windows will not be able to start it and will give some error messages."
---
Unfortunately in Win7, Windows will keep starting unnecessary services that I *know* I don't need when I set them to manual. Some of them when set to manual, will reset themselves to 'Automatic'!! This is just 'wrong'! At this point I've found that resetting them to Disabled is still respected. But on home networks that don't need a Home network provider, TCP6, device discovery (there's nothing to discover), IPSEC, Firewall (I have another it doesn't detect), ..and a few others -- they won't stay off unless you set them to DISABLED.
In XP, services that were set to manual were good about staying off unless needed -- though some were bad about not starting 'on demand' (windows installer service) and require to be running at all times to work 'on demand'...
MUHAMMED ALI TAUHIDI
O.K.THANK YOU.
bejay
Can anyone tell me why windows 7 keeps trying to communicate with MSECN.NET please when i have no kind of updaters operating = why are there constant calls to the edge caching network?
VG
^^ It seems you are using Microsoft Security Essentials. If yes, no need to worry about it.
Frank Odds
I just counted 172 processes on my Windows 7. My computer runs like a snail, often stopping for as much as a minute before completing something simple like opening a file or folder. Surely all these services are not necessary (and indeed about half of them are not running)? But how can I determine which ones to shut down safely? From my point of view Windows 7 has become a nightmare. If I want to work fast I go back to XP on my dual boot system.
VG
^^ Please post your HijackThis log file in Virus Problem topic. It might be also due to a virus infection.