Which services can I safely disable?

Hi all,

I used to use this site when I had XP to know which services I could turn off safely, and I wondered whether this is still a good site to go to for such things (ie Vista), I only ever used it to try to get that extra bit of oomph out of the PC and by and large it helped a fair bit. I still have loads listed in the Task Manager Processes, and am unsure what I can stop and what I should leave well alone

Or is there a guide here for such things? has anyone else used Black Vipers site? or should I keep my distance?

Black Viper's Web Site

Jekyll and Hyde

Hi JH, yes there are some services that you can safely disable. I just used that site and this one: Windows Vista Services Explained to double check some of the more common services that are safe to disable. Just be aware that some services that are recommended to be disabled may me services that you rely upon. ie Media Center, networking etc

Before you make any changes, I'd suggest to create a restore point first just in case. Also, don't disable all of them at once, just in case something stops working. It can be a PITA to track down which one is at fault when you do them all at once

Hi smarteyeball,

I understand, and thank you for the link, I'll check it out one of the fatal errors I used to make was just that, disabling loads at once and then well, on XP when I made restore points and tried to go back most of them never worked :huh: could never understand why lol hope Vista never gives me that problem, system restore is another thing that kind of confuses me but I shan't get into that in this thread, I must learn not to go talking about 2 or three different things in a thread about something else

So in the end the only thing that was left for me was the dreaded format, but simple on XP compared to say Win98 lol

Alot of what I have in the Task Manager are svchost etc.....never disabled any though, they look like they are important as there are so many lol

Thank you again

Jekyll and Hyde

I know all about disabling a lot at once too

To create a restore point type Restore in your search bar on the start menu and select System Restore. Then you can select open system protection to create a restore point. have a look at brinks Tutorial:

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/76332-system-restore-point-create.html?filter[11]=Backup%20Restore

I never had much like with it in XP either, so i stopped using it. I only recently started using itagain in Vista /Windows 7 and I must say it's pretty handy

The svchost covers a lot of different essential services, so killing the process in Task Manager will only be temporary and you may lock up your PC. Disabling the services that cause them is 'safer'

To view more detail about what processes are running and which services are behind them, download Process Explorer:

Process Explorer

The detail may be overwhelming at first, but a little time and googling will help

I appreciate that thanks, I'll look into it all :D

I did the same thing as you in XP stopped using it, but unfortunately for me old habits die hard and its always been disabled on Vista, too worried that the system will bog down when playing intensive games, but as you have said I'll study Brinks Tutorial and come to some agreement with my PC on it lol :D

I struggle to take in alot of info but a little at a time should be the best course of action

Thanks again

Jekyll and Hyde

No worries mate, a little bit of info sinking in is better than a lot not sinking in at all. Just take your time and you'll get there