TweakHound's Super XP Tweaking Guide - SP3 Final - Page 6 of 17

Services

Microsoft pulled their services guide that I had linked to previously because the information was outdated due to SP2. Even the default settings for Services listed in Help & Support are still wrong. To date they haven’t updated a single page for SP2 let alone SP3. I’ve gotten these settings by doing a fresh install of both XP Home and Pro and exporting the Services configuration as a .csv file.

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This is a tough subject folks. Most of the services that you may or may not need depend on your individual configuration. Some of the factors that you need to consider include: How you access the internet, if and how you are networked, if and how you are sharing files or printers, whether or not you want the GUI to be pretty, whether or not you have a 3^rd party backup program, whether or not you remember to update things, etc…

The following table contains my recommended settings. They are based on hundreds of custom installs. They are also expressly NOT for machines in a domain (even if your IT guy was stupid enough to give you these permissions). Reading the notes provided is KEY to interpreting the recommendations.

Action: Adjust System Services *All Levels

Purpose: Free up system resources. Security.

More Info – No valid links at Microsoft see note in red above.

To edit your services:

Press the Windows + R keys > type services.msc (do not use msconfig). To edit a service, double-click on the entry.

Re-boot when finished.

If something stops working that was working before you edited the services, simply return it to the default value. If you have a concern as to whether nor not it is safe for you to disable a service you have 2 choices; disable it and see if it causes problems, or, set it to Manual. In most cases Manual lets the system start a service if needed.

Levels 3 and 4 are configured for max security and are not for machines with multiple users.

You can download this table in Word (.doc) format here.

Can’t view it? Try OpenOffice or Microsoft’s Word Viewer 2003 (both free).

A = Automatic M = Manual D = Disabled *IMPORTANT* Read what the Levels mean before continuing. Level 1 – Best setting for those who do not know how to easily recover from problems or when you are setting up a system for someone else and don’t want a phone call late at night from someone wanting tech support. Level 2 – More secure. For single user machines. Full networking abilities still available. Good for people with a home network, especially those with non-NT versions of Windows or Linux on their network. Level 3 – Even more secure. More system resources freed. Requires more configuration by user. Level 4 – Locked and loaded. Don’t even try it if you don’t know what you are doing. This will require you to enable services before applying any updates. Functionality may be hindered.
Name	XP Pro Default	XP Home Default	Level 1	Level 2	Level 3	Level 4	Notes
Alerter	Disabled	Disabled	D	D	D	D
Application Layer Gateway Service	Manual	Manual	M	M	M	M
Application Management	Manual	Manual	M	M	M	M
Automatic Updates	Automatic	Automatic	A	A	A	D	You can’t disable this and still use Windows Update.
Background Intelligent Transfer Service	Manual	Manual	M	M	M	D	You can’t disable this and still use Windows Update.
ClipBook	Disabled	Disabled	D	D	D	D
COM+ Event System	Manual	Manual	M	M	M	M
COM+ System Application	Manual	Manual	M	M	M	M
Computer Browser	Automatic	Automatic	A	A	D	D
Cryptographic Services	Automatic	Automatic	A	A	A	D	Windows Update errors may occur if this is disabled.
DCOM Server Process Launcher	Automatic	Automatic	A	A	A	A
DHCP Client	Automatic	Automatic	A	A	D Or A	D	CAUTION You’ll have to set your IP Address manually. You’ll need to know all your networks settings to do this. Not everyone will be able to disable this and still be able to connect to the internet or connect to game servers. Do not change this on an ICS gateway.
Distributed Link Tracking Client	Automatic	Automatic	A	M	M	M
Distributed Transaction Coordinator	Manual	Manual	M	M	M	M
DNS Client	Automatic	Automatic	A	A	A	A

Error Reporting Service	Automatic	Automatic	A	M	M	D
Event Log	Automatic	Automatic	A	A	A	A
Fast User Switching Compatibility	Manual	Manual	A	M	D	D	Will require you to reboot machine to log in as another user.
Help and Support	Automatic	Automatic	M	M	D	D
HTTP SSL	Manual	Manual	M	M	M	M
Human Interface Device Access	Disabled	Disabled	D	D	D	D	Best to leave this at whatever your value is already set to. Many USB devices use this these days (keyboards, special mice, remotes). You can try disabling this to see if your devices need it or not.
IMAPI CD-Burning COM Service	Manual	Manual	A	M	M	D
Indexing Service	Manual	Manual	D	D	D	D	Worthless resource hog that fires up when it feels like it.
IPSEC Services	Automatic	Automatic	A	A	D	D
Logical Disk Manager	Automatic	Automatic	M	M	M	M
Logical Disk Manager Administrative Service	Manual	Manual	M	M	M	M
Messenger	Disabled	Disabled	D	D	D	D	Security risk.
MS Software Shadow Copy Provider	Manual	Manual	M	M	M	M
Net Logon	Manual	Manual	D	D	D	D
NetMeeting Remote Desktop Sharing	Manual	Manual	D	D	D	D
Network Connections	Manual	Manual	M	M	M	M
Network DDE	Disabled	Disabled	D	D	D	D
Network DDE DSDM	Disabled	Disabled	D	D	D	D
Network Location Awareness (NLA)	Manual	Manual	M	M	M	M
Network Provisioning Service	Manual	Manual	M	M	M	M
NT LM Security Support Provider	Manual	Manual	M	M	M	M
Performance Logs and Alerts	Manual	Manual	M	M	M	M
Plug and Play	Automatic	Automatic	A	A	A	A
Portable Media Serial Number Service	Manual	Manual	M	M	M	D
Print Spooler	Automatic	Automatic	A	A	A	M
Protected Storage	Automatic	Automatic	A	A	A	D
QoS RSVP	Manual	Manual	M	D	D	D
Remote Access Auto Connection Manager	Manual	Manual	M	M	M	M
Remote Access Connection Manager	Manual	Manual	M	M	M	M
Remote Desktop Help Session Manager	Manual	Manual	M	M	D	D
Remote Procedure Call (RPC)	Automatic	Automatic	A	A	A	A
Remote Procedure Call (RPC) Locator	Manual	Manual	M	M	M	M
Remote Registry	Automatic	N/A	D	D	D	D	Security risk.
Removable Storage	Manual	Manual	M	M	M	M
Routing and Remote Access	Disabled	Disabled	D	D	D	D
Secondary Logon	Automatic	Automatic	A	D	D	D
Security Accounts Manager	Automatic	Automatic	A	A	A	A
Security Center	Automatic	Automatic	A	D	D	D
Server	Automatic	Automatic	A	A	D	D	You will no longer be able to share files or printers from your computer with this setting. (You can still access network shares though.) If you need to share a file temporarily, open services.msc and start it.
Shell Hardware Detection	Automatic	Automatic	A	A	A	A
Smart Card	Manual	Manual	M	M	D	D
SSDP Discovery Service	Manual	Manual	M	M	M	M
System Event Notification	Automatic	Automatic	A	A	A	A
System Restore Service	Automatic	Automatic	A	D	D	D	DO NOT disable this if you don’t use a 3rd party backup program!
Task Scheduler	Automatic	Automatic	A	A	A	A
TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper	Automatic	Automatic	A	A	D	D	You may need this if you have an old OS using NetBIOS on your network. Makes life easier to have this on if you have a Linux box in your network.
Telephony	Manual	Manual	M	M	M	M	Needed if you have a modem. I do not disable this because it causes entries in the error logs. If you don’t care about this, disable it.
Telnet	Disabled	N/A	D	D	D	D	Security risk.
Terminal Services	Manual	Manual	M	D	D	D	Security risk.
Themes	Automatic	Automatic	A	A	A or D	D	Makes XP Pretty. Up to user preference.
Uninterruptible Power Supply	Manual	Manual	M	D	D	D	Got UPS you need it.
Universal Plug and Play Device Host	Manual	Manual	M	M	D	D	Security risk. If things you connect to outside of your machine stop working after you disable this, set it back to manual.
Volume Shadow Copy	Manual	Manual	M	M	M	M
WebClient	Automatic	Automatic	A	M	D	D
Windows Audio	Automatic	Automatic	A	A	A	A
Windows Firewall/Internet Connection Sharing (ICS)*	Automatic	Automatic	A*	D*	D*	D*	DO NOT Disable this if you don’t use a 3rd party firewall or your machine is an ICS gateway.
*Do you need this service running even if you aren’t using the Windows Firewall or ICS? The truth is as of this writing, I don’t know. I’ve tried both enabled and disabled. When this is disabled something is going on. I have the network icon in the notification area. When this service is disabled the icon will not show up unless I right-click on My Network Neighborhood. So clearly disabling it is affecting something. Having said that, there are no related errors in the logs and I’ve noticed no apparent effects in functionality. This service may cause problems on a high-speed network. See: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=842264
Windows Image Acquisition(WIA)	Manual	Manual	M	M	M	D	If you don’t have a digital a camera or a scanner attached to your computer, you can disable this.
Windows Installer	Manual	Manual	M	M	M	M
Windows Management Instrumentation	Automatic	Automatic	A	A	A	A
Windows Management Instrumentation Driver Extensions	Manual	N/A	M	M	M	M
Windows Time	Automatic	Automatic	A	A	A	D	I like to keep the time on my computers accurate w/o having to think about it.
Wired AutoConfig	Manual	Manual	M	M	M	M
Wireless Zero Configuration	Automatic	Automatic	D	D	D	D	Keep this on Auto if you use wireless networking.
WMI Performance Adapter	Manual	Manual	M	D	D	D
Workstation	Automatic	Automatic	A	A	A	A

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