Disable Unwanted Windows XP Services

XP has tons of services enabled by default. By knowing what these services do , you can really speed up your system by disabling the ones you don’t need.Many services can be modified to increase the speed of your system.

If you ever find something not working correctly, you should reset it. However, these are the services that I disable.I describe the use of these services so you can make a decision if you should have it enabled or not.

How to Access Your Microsoft Services:

1. Select Control Panel

2. Double click Administrative Tools

3. Double click Services

4. Scroll down and highlight the service you want to adjust . Right-click on it and choose Properties

5. Click the stop button.

6. Select Disable or Manual in the Startup Type scroll bar.

Services to Disable:

1. Smart Card / Smart Card Helper – If you don’t have a smart card system, you don’t need this service. So you can disable this.

2. TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper service – Unless you run NetBIOS on your system, you don’t need this service. Disable it.

3. Uninterruptible Power Supply – If you dont have UPS then disable this service.

4. Remote Registry service – This service allows one to remotely edit the registry through a network connection.If you are not a part of a network you wont be needing it.So disable it.

5. Error Reporting Service – A program crashes and microsoft wants to know about it. Give up your extra CPU cycles to help Gates polish his OS, or you can just disable it.

6. Wireless Zero Configuration – Unless you use wi-fi, you can safely stop this service. If you use wi-fi, this is actually a nice little service.

7. Alerter – This is so useless SP2 turns this off for you. For the rest of you folks, you should turn it off too.

8. Clipbook – This service allows you to cut and paste across your private network. Most programs that actually allow you to do this use their own ways for doing this.Useless.Stop it.

9. Computer Browser – If you are on a LAN, keep it enabled. If not, stop it. It allows you to see the other computers on your network.

10. FastUser Switching Compatibility – If you keep multiple users/logins on your current computer, you should leave this enabled. If you are the lone user then disable it.

11. Messenger Service – Depends if you windows messenger then you require this.But it should be set to manual and it should be started whenever you require it.

12. NetMeeting Remote Desktop Sharing Service – If you don’t use NetMeeting, you should stop this service.

13. Network DDE/Network DDE DSDM – DDE DSDM was an excellent idea by Microsoft that flopped. Disable both of these.

14. Remote Desktop Help Session Manager Service – I use remote desktop all the time. By remote desktop you can access the desktop of other users accross the network.If you use it then enable it.

15. Telnet Service – This allows you to use telnet to log into your system from a remote location. It’s a security risk so don’t keep it enabled unless you use it.If you are not a part of a network,disable it.

16.Automatic Update: If you are not the part of the network then disable it.(You dont have the internet access.

17.Disable services like telephony etc. Which needs network access.Also disable third party services which you dont use.

If you want to be able to enable and disable a bunch of services rapidly then create a batch file for it.