Windows 7 : Disable Services for Faster Performance

12/1/2010 7:59:17 PM

Because services are software, they run in memory and so take up a small chunk of your system’s resources. Any one service doesn’t affect performance all that much, but load up a bunch of them and your PC slows down noticeably.

Windows understands this, so many services don’t run automatically at startup. Instead, the services run only when you or a program requests them. So you can improve Windows performance by doing two things:

Prevent Windows from automatically starting some services at boot time.
Prevent Windows from starting other services that you don’t need.

In both cases, you do this by disabling those services that you don’t (or think you don’t) need. First, here are the general steps to follow to disable a service:

1.	Select Start, type services.msc, and then press Enter. The Services window appears.
2.	Double-click the service you want to disable.
3.	In the General tab, drop down the Startup Type list and select Disabled.
4.	Click OK.

That’s easy enough, but the hard part is knowing which services are okay to disable. To help out, Table 1 presents a list of the Windows services that you may be able to disable. None of these services are required by other services, so disabling any of these won’t break something else. However, I suggest caution: Disable one at a time, reboot, and make sure Windows seems to be operating normally. Also, if your PC is part of a corporate network, you might want to get permission or guidance from your IT department before disabling any services.

Table 1. Windows Services You Might Consider Disabling
Service	Startup Type	Disable If...
Adaptive Brightness	Manual	Your monitor or notebook PC doesn’t contain a brightness sensor or you don’t want your screen’s brightness adjusted automatically.
AppID Service	Manual	You don’t deploy application control policies.
Application Experience	Manual	You don’t run any programs that aren’t designed to work with either Windows Vista or Windows 7.
Application Layer Gateway Service	Manual	You don’t use Internet Connection Sharing.
Application Management	Manual	You don’t deploy software using Group Policy.
BitLocker Drive Encryption Service	Manual	You don’t use BitLocker to encrypt drives.
Block Level Backup Engine Service	Manual	You don’t use Windows 7’s built-in Backup service.
BranchCache	Manual	You don’t use Windows 7 in a corporate setting that has multiple remote offices (branches).
Certificate Propagation	Manual	You don’t use smart cards.
Computer Browser	Automatic	You’re willing to refresh the Network window by hand (because this service looks for network computers automatically).
Desktop Window Manager Session Manager	Automatic	You don’t use Windows 7’s Aero theme.
Diagnostic Policy Service	Automatic	You don’t need Windows components to access the built-in diagnostic services (problem detection and troubleshooting).
Diagnostic Service Host	Manual	Same as above.
Diagnostic System Host	Manual	Ditto.
Distributed Transaction Coordinator	Manual	You’re not running software that requires transaction processing (which is restricted to big-time corporate services such as transactional databases).
Fax	Manual	You don’t use your PC for faxing.
Handsfree Headset Service	Automatic	You don’t use a Bluetooth headset with Windows 7.
Health Key and Certificate Management	Manual	You don’t use any software that requires X.509 cryptographic certificates.
HomeGroup Listener	Manual	You don’t use Windows 7’s HomeGroup feature to share files over your network.
HomeGroup Provider	Manual	Ditto.
Human Interface Device Access	Manual	Your keyboards, remote controls, and other input devices have their own drivers to handle their special function buttons (such as the Copy button on a scanner).
IKE and AuthIP IPsec Keying Modules	Automatic	You don’t use high-end Internet security protocols.
Internet Connection Sharing (ICS)	Disabled	You don’t allow other computers to share your Internet connection.
IP Helper	Automatic	You don’t use the latest version of the Internet Protocol (IPv6), which is almost certainly the case (IPv4 still being the standard).
IPsec Policy Agent	Automatic	You don’t implement any group policies that require Internet Protocol security (IPSec).
Jumpstart Wifi Protected Setup	Manual	None of your networking devices use WiFi Protected Setup.
KtmRm for Distributed Transaction Coordinator	Automatic	You don’t use databases or other resources that require the Microsoft Distributed Transaction Coordinator (which is needed only by corporate systems).
Link-Layer Topology Discovery Mapper	Manual	You never use Window 7’s Network Map feature.
Microsoft iSCSI Initiator Service	Manual	You don’t use any remote SCSI devices.
Microsoft Software Shadow Copy Provider	Manual	You don’t need to access the volume shadow copies (essentially, file and folder snapshots) to revert objects to a previous state.
Net.Tcp Port Sharing Service	Disabled	You don’t (or your applications don’t) need to share TCP ports.
Netlogon	Manual	You don’t use a domain controller.
Network Access Protection Agent	Manual	Your network doesn’t have a server that implements Network Access Protection.
Offline Files	Automatic	You never use network files while not connected to the network.
Peer Name Resolution Protocol	Manual	You don’t use collaborative applications such as Windows Meeting Space.
Peer Networking Grouping	Manual	Same as above.
Peer Networking Identity Manager	Manual	Ditto.
Performance Logs and Alerts	Manual	You don’t use performance logs and alerts.
PnP-X IP Bus Enumerator	Manual	You don’t mind that Windows doesn’t show external network devices automatically.
PNRP Machine Name Publication Service	Manual	You don’t run any programs that require the Peer Name Resolution Protocol.
Pong Service for Wireless USB	Manual	You don’t use any wireless USB devices.
Print Spooler	Automatic	You don’t print.
Problem Reports and Solutions Control Panel Support	Manual	You don’t use Vista’s Problem Reports and Solutions feature.
Program Compatibility Assistant Service	Automatic	You don’t run applications using compatibility mode.
Quality Windows Audio Video Experience	Manual	You don’t stream audio or video on your home network.
Remote Registry	Manual	You don’t need to allow network computers to connect to your PC’s Registry.
Security Center	Automatic	You don’t need to use the Security Center to monitor your PC’s security status.
Sensors MTP Monitor Service	Manual	You don’t use any devices that use Media Transfer Protocol (MTP) sensors to provide sensor data to your PC.
Smart Card	Manual	You don’t use smart cards.
Smart Card Removal Policy	Manual	Same as above.
SNMP Trap	Manual	Your network doesn’t use any Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) programs.
SuperFetch	Automatic	You don’t want Windows to use the SuperFetch cache to improve performance

Tablet PC Input Service	Automatic	Your computer isn’t a TabletPC.
Task Scheduler	Automatic	You don’t use Task Scheduler.
Themes	Automatic	You don’t use themes to customize your PC.
TPM Base Services	Manual	You don’t use Vista’s BitLocker drive encryption.
Windows Backup	Manual	You don’t use Windows Backup.
Windows Biometric Service	Manual	You don’t use any biometric devices (such as a fingerprint reader).
Windows CardSpace	Manual	You don’t use a CardSpace digital ID.
Windows Connect Now - Config Registrar	Manual	None of your networking devices use WiFi Protected Setup.
Windows Defender	Automatic	You use an antispyware program other than Windows Defender.
Windows Error Reporting Service	Automatic	You don’t send error data to Microsoft.
Windows Firewall	Automatic	You use a hardware firewall or a software firewall other than Windows Firewall.
Windows Media Center Extender Service	Disabled	You don’t use a Media Center Extender device.
Windows Media Center Receiver Service	Manual	You don’t use Windows to play TV or radio signals.
Windows Media Center Scheduler Service	Manual	You don’t use Media Center to record TV shows.
Windows Media Center Service Launcher	Automatic	You’ve disabled the previous two services. (This service launches the previous two services at startup if your computer has a TV tuner card.)
Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service	Manual	You don’t share your Media Player library.
Windows Search	Automatic	You don’t use Vista’s desktop search engine (or you use another, such as Google Desktop Search).
Windows Time	Manual	You don’t use Windows 7’s time synchronization feature.
WMI Performance Adapter	Manual	You don’t have any network programs that use Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) to track performance data.

Note

Whether you see many of the services in Table 1 depends on which version of Windows you’re running. For example, you don’t see many of these services if you’re using Windows 7 Home Basic or Windows 7 Home Premium. Also, many third-party programs add their own services, so your version of Windows 7 may many services not listed here.