Windows Vista Services Configuration: Turn Off / Disable Unnecessary Services to Optimize Performance

We have posted service guide for Windows XP in past and now its turn of Windows Vista. 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 My Computer icon on desktop and select Manage, it'll open a window, in which goto: Services & Application -> Services. To disable or Set a service to MANUAL, double-click on the service and select the desired option in Startup list box.

2. You can also open the same by going to Administrative Tools and open Computer Management.

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, then windows will not be able to start it and will give ERROR.

So here is the list of services that can be safely set to MANUAL (Many of them may be disabled automatically on some systems):

• 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
• Indexing service (If you don't use Windows Search feature frequently)
• Offline Files
• Portable Device Enumerator Service
• Print Spooler (If you don't have Printer)
• ReadyBoost (If you don't use ReadyBoost feature)
• Remote Registry (Always disable it for Security purposes)
• Secondary Logon
• Security Center
• Server (If your computer is not connected to any network)
• System Restore (If you don't use System Restore)
• Tablet PC Input Service
• TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper Service
• 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 automatically)

PS: You can see the details of each service so that you can determine whether it should be disabled or not.

Posted in: win vista