windows services

I was wondering if anyone had a guide explaining which windows services do what and if it was enabled/disabled what it would affect. I just realized I used black vipers guide and I hear a lot of bad things about him.

You can use services.msc itself. It gives a nice description of what each service does, and what dependencies it has too. I also believe that Microsoft has the information on its website.

While some of the recommendations made by Black Viper might be disputed the basics are pretty much correct I believe.

yup if you don't believe black viper try http://www.theeldergeek.com/

blackviper is the #1 source for XP services and always will be.. i wouldnt trust anyone else... i use it every time i reformat

Don't waste your time disabling services.

ignore him, Brutal unless you have proof, then don't bother thread crapping.

BrutalDrew said:

Don't waste your time disabling services.

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Blackviper.com's guide(as mentioned) is pretty extensive and has a lot of tweaks that can boost performance. Services like Remote registry, and Indexing service dont need to boot with windows...and thats just 2 of many.

depends on what you want runnin' with yer system. some services are plain unneeded (as said before, remote registery, etc). Some you may never use (fast user switching for me).... and others you may use that i won't use. It depends on you preferences.

i suggest you loo it up and choose for yourself if you need it or not...

post back and let us know your results

Disabling services is one of the first things I do upon reformat. Windows Time, WMA Adapter, Windows Wireless config, System Restore(cant forget that one),Secondary logon, UPS,Remote Desktop Help session mgr, and performance logs and alerts.

I know I missed one.

Don't disable services...don't install them altogether

Use nlite

Disabling services does free up some RAM, but in all honesty it's just not much...and MS will always want to use them anyway.

Since I've used nLite to cut out unwanted services and unwanted features from the install CD (so they *can't* be installed) I've noticed HUGE improvements in boot time and overall speed - and a considerable reduction in RAM usage...and that's only cutting out the services you *really* don't need

ignore him, Brutal unless you have proof, then don't bother thread crapping.

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I have already explained plenty of times how services work. If a service is not being used it will use no CPU time and memory will be reclaimed as needed. Go pick up "Windows Internals" if you want to do some reading and find out for yourself.

Here is even some benchmarks done.
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=34&threadid=1678445&enterthread=y

I am not thread crapping. I am giving the guy good advice by telling him not to even bother.

Here is something from a member at Hardforums too.
http://www.hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1027380985&postcount=15

BrutalDrew said:

I am not thread crapping. I am giving the guy good advice by telling him not to even bother.

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Indeed.
Over the past several days you have been quite active debunking the value of disabling services and have provided some documentation to back yourself up.
I applaud the effort.

However, two thoughts have popped up I'd like to share.

First, how certain are you that the tests you are running would even find a performance increase (assuming there is one to be found) attributable to tweaking services? I am not a Windows expert so I have no alternatives to suggest, but you seem extremely confident that the (relatively) small battery of tests (and again, I applaud the effort...I know how time consuming that must have been) you ran completely proved your point.

Second, there is the niggling problem of the "It feels faster" phenomonon. Certainly, much of this can be dismissed as "I just spent a crapload of money/time...this had damn well better feel faster!", but at least some of this response has to be considered valid.
You can quantify the performance of the machine till doomsday, but the science ends where the PC-human interface begins.

An example:
I can prove beyond doubt that my Raptor RAID array is almost twice as fast as a single drive, but it doesn't "feel" like it.
The Storage section of the forum is littered with "I just installed Raptors and they aren't any faster...WTF!" threads.
Ignoring the price/performance analysis (irrelevant since we are only concerned with quantifiable speed numbers), the only possible response to the question "What is the best storage solution?" would have to be "Raptors in RAID0", cause that's what the numbers say.

The point being...is it fair, or even scientific, to dismiss the "feeling" factor just because the tests at hand don't/can't/won't put hard numbers to it?

By the way-
Your link to Anandtech leads to FreshDaemon's original post which was cut/pasted on this forum also.
Does posting the same assertion on two forums make it twice as true?

Being goodhearted, I will assume that there is not a specific "anti-BV" agenda in place (although GreNM's post in your second link begs the question a bit) so I wonder if there are plans afoot to continue the testing on a modern machine with an expanded battery of tests?

That would be very interesting.

First, how certain are you that the tests you are running would even find a performance increase (assuming there is one to be found) attributable to tweaking services? I am not a Windows expert so I have no alternatives to suggest, but you seem extremely confident that the (relatively) small battery of tests (and again, I applaud the effort...I know how time consuming that must have been) you ran completely proved your point.

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I didn't do the tests myself. All credit goes to Fresh Daemon for the testing. I do admit that more tests should be done, but games and common desktop tasks showed no improvement. Also, I am not basing what I say just on Fresh Daemon's tests. Many other people have done tests on plenty of forums. Members at Hardforums have in the past. My point is also based off the fact of how services work.

Second, there is the niggling problem of the "It feels faster" phenomonon. Certainly, much of this can be dismissed as "I just spent a crapload of money/time...this had damn well better feel faster!", but at least some of this response has to be considered valid.
You can quantify the performance of the machine till doomsday, but the science ends where the PC-human interface begins.

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Basically all of the 'It feels faster" claims are nothing more then placebo effect.

I can prove beyond doubt that my Raptor RAID array is almost twice as fast as a single drive, but it doesn't "feel" like it.
The Storage section of the forum is littered with "I just installed Raptors and they aren't any faster...WTF!" threads.
Ignoring the price/performance analysis (irrelevant since we are only concerned with quantifiable speed numbers), the only possible response to the question "What is the best storage solution?" would have to be "Raptors in RAID0", cause that's what the numbers say.

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It may not feel like it since RAID-0 is good for large sequential read and writes, not for seek times or anything. Actually in some cases with many small files RAID-0 would be slower because of the worsened seek times. This is because each drive has to seek to their portion of the data. So, RAID-0 will not be faster for everything. It depends on the task being done.

Your link to Anandtech leads to FreshDaemon's original post which was cut/pasted on this forum also.
Does posting the same assertion on two forums make it twice as true?

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I guess he just posted it here also to prove that there really is not a performance increase by doing all this "tweaking." He will most likely expand it to get more tests done and test other "tweaks." I only posted the one at Anandtech because it is a sticky. So it was easier for me to find as opposed to searching here.

Being goodhearted, I will assume that there is not a specific "anti-BV" agenda in place (although GreNM's post in your second link begs the question a bit) so I wonder if there are plans afoot to continue the testing on a modern machine with an expanded battery of tests?

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I don't even know BV. For all I know he could be a great guy. I just really dislike his website. It is filled with false information and just terrible advice. The reason BV is mentioned is because he is the most popular source for service tweaking. Also, as I said Fresh Daemon will probably continue to add more tests and everything.

so are you saying disabling services wont increase the speed of boot time ?

or free up memory (no matter the value) ?

If anything, disabling services would decrease boot times. However, my boot time is perfectly acceptable and most people here probably leave their computer on 24/7 anyway.

Also, yes disabling services would free up a certain amount of memory. However, this does not translate into an increase in performance at all. The benchmarks that were done prove this.

yes sorry thats what i was reffering to .. increased speed (boot time)

that right there is enough for alot of people...

BrutalDrew said:

If anything, disabling services would decrease boot times. However, my boot time is perfectly acceptable and most people here probably leave their computer on 24/7 anyway.

Also, yes disabling services would free up a certain amount of memory. However, this does not translate into an increase in performance at all. The benchmarks that were done prove this.

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man that's the funniest thing ive ever read in my life...

Disabling services not only free's up memory but also increases boot times...

whoohoo you did some benchmarks.. good for you, now take that benchmark and give yourself a pat on the back because it works for your benchmark machine, and i cant almost garunteed a different result for any other machine

that right there is enough for alot of people...

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If those people want to disable services for that reason, then fine. I cannot deny the fact that it may help with boot times. I can, however, deny that there is any improvement once booted.

Disabling services not only free's up memory but also increases boot times...

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If it increased boot times why would you even bother disabling them? Also, if you knew how to read, you would realize I did not do those benchmarks. They were also done with two totally different machines that shows no improvement. People at Hardforums have also done tests to prove what I am saying.

Since you are the one saying there is an improvement, why don't you provide some benchmarks? I have backed up my claims with explanations and benchmarks. All everybody else has is some "It feels faster" claims.

well i think it all started when you said dont waste your time disabling services.
and then it turned into benchmarks..

and i believe the thread starter asked what it would affect..

1. increased boot times
2. free up memory