Windows 10 Services
Yeah, I know Win10 fires up a lots of services. Lots of folks are in a hurry to disable services. I get it. Back in the Windows XP days this could make a big difference. With todays wicked fast PCs and Win10s fantastic memory management, this is no longer the case.
Many sites will try and convince you to disable services that do not start by default. This is pointless. Disabling services unnecessarily can lead to problems and you’ve gained nothing.
A warning. Lots of folks/sites/guides will tell you to delete a service (sc delete). Do not delete services. This can lead to a host of problems.
There are only a few services I’m going to recommend you disable and I will explain why.
Connected User Experiences and Telemetry
Disable – Part of Win10 telemetry. See Windows 10 Privacy Settings
Distributed Link Tracking Client
Manual – Usually OK to disable but there is an odd app or 2 that uses this. Manual setting is best.
dmwappushservice
Disable – Part of Win10 telemetry. See Windows 10 Privacy Settings
Geolocation Service
Leave alone. Turn this off via Settings > Privacy > Geolocation.
| TweakHound’s Win10 Services Recommendations For Home Users | |||
| Name | Status | Startup Type | Settings, etc. |
| Application Information | Running | Manual (Trigger Start) | Needed |
| Background Tasks Infrastructure Service | Running | Automatic | Needed |
| Base Filtering Engine | Running | Automatic | Needed |
| Bluetooth Support Service | Running | Manual (Trigger Start) | Only running if you have Bluetooth |
| CNG Key Isolation | Running | Manual (Trigger Start) | Needed |
| COM+ Event System | Running | Automatic | Needed |
| Connected User Experiences and Telemetry | Running | Automatic | Disable |
| CoreMessaging | Running | Automatic | Needed |
| Credential Manager | Running | Manual | Needed |
| Cryptographic Services | Running | Automatic | Needed |
| DCOM Server Process Launcher | Running | Automatic | Needed |
| Device Association Service | Running | Automatic (Trigger Start) | Needed |
| Device Install Service | Running | Manual (Trigger Start) | Needed |
| DHCP Client | Running | Automatic | Needed |
| Diagnostic Policy Service | Running | Automatic | Needed |
| Diagnostic Service Host | Running | Manual | Needed |
| Diagnostic System Host | Running | Manual | Needed |
| Distributed Link Tracking Client | Running | Automatic | For home usually OK to disable. Best to set to Manual |
| dmwappushservice | Manual (Trigger Start) | Disable. Not auto started but this is part of Win10 telemetry. | |
| DNS Client | Running | Automatic (Trigger Start) | Needed |
| Function Discovery Provider Host | Running | Manual | Needed |
| Function Discovery Resource Publication | Running | Manual | Needed |
| Geolocation Service | Running | Manual (Trigger Start) | The “trigger” is your Privacy > Geolocation settings. Turn it off there. |
| Human Interface Device Service | Running | Manual (Trigger Start) | Needed |
| IP Helper | Running | Automatic | Needed |
| Local Session Manager | Running | Automatic | Needed |
| Network Connected Devices Auto-Setup | Running | Manual (Trigger Start) | Needed |
| Network Connection Broker | Running | Manual (Trigger Start) | Needed |
| Network List Service | Running | Manual | Needed |
| Network Location Awareness | Running | Automatic | Needed |
| Network Store Interface Service | Running | Automatic | Needed |
| Plug and Play | Running | Manual | Needed |
| Power | Running | Automatic | Needed |
| Print Spooler | Running | Automatic | Needed |
| Program Compatibility Assistant Service | Running | Automatic | Needed |
| Remote Procedure Call (RPC) | Running | Automatic | Needed |
| RPC Endpoint Mapper | Running | Automatic | Needed |
| Security Accounts Manager | Running | Automatic | Needed |
| Security Center | Running | Automatic (Delayed Start) | Needed |
| Server | Running | Automatic | Needed |
| Shell Hardware Detection | Running | Automatic | Needed |
| SSDP Discovery | Running | Manual | Needed |
| State Repository Service | Running | Manual | Needed |
| Superfetch | Running | Automatic | Needed |
| System Event Notification Service | Running | Automatic | Needed |
| System Events Broker | Running | Automatic (Trigger Start) | Needed |
| Task Scheduler | Running | Automatic | Needed |
| TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper | Running | Manual (Trigger Start) | Needed if you are networked with older Windows Oss, Linux, some printers… |
| Themes | Running | Automatic | Needed |
| Tile Data model server | Running | Automatic | Needed |
| Time Broker | Running | Manual (Trigger Start) | Needed if you want your time kept accurate via internet. |
| User Manager | Running | Automatic (Trigger Start) | Needed |
| User Profile Service | Running | Automatic | Needed |
| Windows Audio | Running | Automatic | Needed |
| Windows Audio Endpoint Builder | Running | Automatic | Needed |
| Windows Connection Manager | Running | Automatic (Trigger Start) | Needed |
| Windows Defender Network Inspection Service | Running | Manual | Needed |
| Windows Defender Service | Running | Automatic | Needed |
| Windows Driver Foundation User-mode Driver Framework |
Running | Manual (Trigger Start) | Needed |
| Windows Event Log | Running | Automatic | Needed |
| Windows Firewall | Running | Automatic | Needed |
| Windows Font Cache Service | Running | Automatic | Needed |
| Windows License Manager Service | Running | Manual (Trigger Start) | Needed |
| Windows Management Instrumentation | Running | Automatic | Needed |
| Windows Search | Running | Automatic (Delayed Start) | Needed |
| Windows Update | Running | Manual (Trigger Start) | Needed |
| WinHTTP Web Proxy Auto-Discovery Service | Running | Manual | Needed |
| WLAN AutoConfig | Running | Automatic | Needed |
| Workstation | Running | Automatic | Needed |
I think Classic Shell is far superior to anything out there and free.
Hi Eric,
Excellent job. I will have to re-read the whole thing again… My favorite is moving all the DOCS, Pix and Misc. to a separate drive. In this way, I can do more frequent OS backups that will not fill the backup drive too fast.
Issues on my end:
1. When I try to change Geolocation Service to AUTOMATIC, I get “the system cannot find the file specified”. Any suggestions?
2. On your tweaks p. 13, you have more options. On Shutdown settings, I only have SLEEP and LOCK. You additionally have: Turn on fast startup and Hibernate. Are you running Win 10 Enterprise?
Suggestion: It would be great to compile everything into a PDF file that can serve as desktop reference.
Geolocation: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/dn764773.aspx?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396
Shutdown settings may vary depending on setup.
PDF: https://www.tweakhound.com/buy-tweaking-windows-10/
This is funny and just for a point of reference I have worked in IT primarily in Computer and Network installation, support, maintenance for 21 years now and have read Eric’s guides since Windows XP as it is one of the easiest ways to get great info on the manipulation of Operating systems and he is about as complete as it gets.
Anyway the way I organize my files is on seperate hard drives internally and with USB media containers most often now (I have 2 64 Gb’s I use and on 256 GB one as well given to me by Corsair. My computer is set up with 3 hard drives (which I would like to grow to 5 with two or 7 in raid sets in 0,1 and 10 (0,1 being options with 5 and 10 being with 7). The first of course is the OS drive otherwise generally known as C:\ and the other two are P:\ programs, and M:\Media which I organize relatively often and I have backups and everything of course external from the OS drive which is also a Corsair Pro SSD and the things on it are often used, and active programs such as Office etcetera but not generally big saves (I like to keep SSD’s relatively light in volume)!
Two things…
1) Excellent job Eric! One thing I miss is the Logoff, Shutdown, and Restart tiles to which I pin to my taskbar…But hey that’s just me..
2) Might as well make it a sixer…LOL
Excellent work! This really takes all the “mystery” out of running and securing this OS…at least for me. A quick “typo” to correct. On page 3, when copying the GOD MODE title, the space between the period after the word MODE, and the first parentheses has to be removed for it to work.
Thank you again for all your hard work!
Fixed. Thanks!
Defragment and optimize your drives bug
There is a bug in Win 10, V 1511 build 10586.17 setting for “defragment and optimize your drives”. If I turn my HDD defrag schedule to ON, my SSD gets switched on too. If I turn OFF SSD defrag, HDD defrag is also turned off. I have defrag for all drives turned off turned OFF and will do it manually.
I have 8Gs of RAM on a 32bit Windows with SSD on a laptop and it boots twice as fast (average 30 sec.) as Windows 10 32 or 64bit (1 min. +) – and Windows 32 bit can only use 4Gs of RAM max.!
Same programs and all drivers all up to date on both so go figure!
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa366778%28v=vs.85%29.aspx