have 80 services running... how can I find out which to turn off?

[MorePower!]

I want to reduce the amount of processes running the background to improve performance but I'm not sure which ones to turn off. Many of them are really hard to read or understand. Any idea of how to find out the significance of a process? I've googled some of before but often I've found that the description doesn't tell me if I need the process on.

edit: I have win 7 btw

 

[EarthDog]

I have 70 and dont need to touch anything... My PC runs just fine with that many and more.

 

[txus.palacios]

BlackViper's Windows 8 Service Tweaking

BlackViper's Windows 7 SP1 Service Tweaking

 

[c627627]

Definitely don't mess with Windows processes you do not understand but if you try this freeware:
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/what_run_in_startup.html

it will tell you which programs you yourself installed that are running at every system boot so you can see if there's something in there you installed that needs to go.

 

[goose90proof]

BlackViper's Windows 8 Service Tweaking

BlackViper's Windows 7 SP1 Service Tweaking

I do not recommend going here. OP, I would leave your services alone. They are there for a reason. You are not going to gain significant performance increase by disabling services. Most of them do not run unless called anyway. Also, if you are using Windows Vista/7, do not disable Aero. Some sites will say that disabling Aero will increase performance. This is not true. It will actually reduce performance by making the cpu responsible for ui rendering as opposed to off-loading it to the gpu.

If you want to find out what is consuming the most resources on your pc, download process monitor and see what's consuming the most cpu cycles and ram. Report back here with your findings and maybe we can offer you some helpful suggestions.

 

[EarthDog]

I used those in the past for benching OS's and was fine with them... but I do agree with the underlying point in not to touch anything as its highly doubtful it will yield anything anyway.

 

[goose90proof]

If you're just trying to squeeze cycles out of a pc without any consideration to Windows' features functionality then I don't think you'd notice the difference, but, I've had people come to me that have tried to optimize their pc's using those black viper guides and ended up breaking functionality and couldn't figure out why.

We're agreed on the sticking point though. It won't produce a significant return in resources.

 

[Bobnova]

You can tune windows and spend a few hours at it, or you can raise your bclk/fsb/ht/whatever by 0.5% and get bigger gains

 

[EarthDog]

Spot on. Noticeable in benchmarks, not IRL.

 

[Wipeout]

I used a program called The Ultimate Troubleshooter.It explains all about the process,and what to turn off.I was was using XP at the time,so not sure about windows 7.Some processes are bull****.When is the last time you used Net Meeting.One example,but I think you should leave it alone.Windows 7 does a great job managing resources.