Tweaking Windows 7

G

GFreeman

Coastermaker
Hello all,

I found a handy document that can help you tweaking your OS by disabling services you don't really use. This has helped me making the OS response quicker :) You may want to leave Network list on automatic if using a pc in a network. Otherwise you won't be able to connect to other PC's. I am using my PC standalone. so that's not an issue for me.

Still my PC isn't idling the way I'd like it to be. After installing SP1 with Windows update I haven't seen it idle as nice as before. First it tried to optimize framework which showed some nuts CPU load after the first reboot. Now it's fine though.. I have uninstalled SP1 because I am not happy about that behaviour. I don't like to see CPU load happen if you don't really know what is causing it. One of the disadvantages of using Windows really..
 

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Kayden

Kayden

Tech Monkey
I usually turn off Tablet services, fax & modem and few other things. I'll take a peak at this I like saving mem and processing power.
 
marfig

marfig

No ROM battery
Very nice, thanks. I tend to tweak a lot my services too, but it's mostly a hunt and peck type of activity, with many services left unchanged because I can't find good enough information about them and don't want to risk system stability. So seeing this document is definitely something very interesting that I could use as a primary source. What's the asterisks meaning though?
 
Optix

Optix

Basket Chassis
Staff member
I don't see any reason to tweak Windows unless someone has a slow system and needs to free up additional resources, is having a legitimate problem related to a service that they do not use or simply wants to be cooler than Microsoft and stick it to them by telling them what services they want running.

It's not like modern system (even my little budget system) needs the extra horsepowa.

/opinion
 
marfig

marfig

No ROM battery
I suppose it will depend on your system.

Assuming Windows 7, you will want to do this if, for instance, you are running with 3 GB of RAM or less and want to do any sort of gaming without being thrown back to the desktop because Aero starts complaining.

On my case, with 4Gb I do it because running
- MS SQL Server 2008,
- Visual Studio 2010
- A WAMP stack (apache+mysql+php+ruby) serving a local bug tracking service I make avalaible to the outside through Dynamic DNS
- Browser with any number of tabs (including always-on documentation)
- And any number of side applications that may be required

... all those simply require of me to be more judicious about my memory and CPU usage. Increasing memory is always an option, although that would move me into 64 bit Windows. But unless I took care of business with something like 8 GB, I'd still probably be optimizing my windows services.

Oh, and some of us are just control freaks too...
 
Kougar

Kougar

Techgage Staff
Staff member
marfig said:
I suppose it will depend on your system.
Click to expand...

That's an extremely good point to make.

I used to be extremely interested in tweaking Windows since Win 98se (which required it just to even work half the time) to Vista. Seven is the first version of Windows I just didn't see enough results from to bother mucking around under the hood with, as far as services are concerned.

The hassle and risk of side-effects didn't warrant the results for a high-end system. Too many experiences with future updates or some new program expecting a service to be there and running into issues when it wasn't under Vista, with no real idea what the true cause was without some digging. But that website link is handy, as I still want to know what some of these services do if I ever need to kill or restart one.
 
Kougar

Kougar

Techgage Staff
Staff member
2Tired2Tango said:
Step 1 ... go into Scheduled Tasks and disable all the spyware...
Click to expand...

Okay, I did forget I disabled some of the anonymous usage reporting in there, I had forgotten entirely about that mess. There are so many tasks set to autorun it's a wonder any single user at MS even knows what their own OS is doing.

I wonder if my OS would enter lock down and give my piracy warnings if I disabled the OS validation task it runs every 3 months? :rolleyes:
 
Rob Williams

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
Tharic-Nar said:
A lot of the staff here use Black Viper's service listings and optimizations, it's very in-depth and well covered, though it won't cover all installs, it does cover basic installs. Worth the perusal...

http://www.blackviper.com/2010/12/17/black-vipers-windows-7-service-pack-1-service-configurations/
Click to expand...

This is one of the references I looked at when deciding which services to disable on our testing machines. I am running most of the services listed there under the tweak section as disabled on my home PC and haven't ever encountered a problem (though no other PC can now detect this one on the network).

marfig said:
Oh, and some of us are just control freaks too...
Click to expand...

This might be an accurate description of me. I run Gentoo Linux for a reason... I build the OS, I am not provided a pre-configured one. It means I have programs and services running that I tell it to run, not vice versa. I like that sort of control, and I love the knowledge that my PC is running as good as it can be.

I will admit that SSDs have somewhat negated the true need to disable a whack of services, but there's nothing wrong with spending a few minutes on it either way.
 
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