Disabling Windows 2000 And XP Services

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In most cases, home or small business users can safely disable the following services, not all of which are installed on Windows XP Home Edition or Windows 2000. Users on a corporate network should consult their IT department before disabling any services.

To disable services run the Services control panel.You can find this under Administrative Tools or access it from the Run command by entering services.msc. Right-click on a service and choose Stop to stop it running again.

These can be set to Stop:

Alerter
Clipbook
Distributed Link Tracking Client
Distributed Transaction Coordinator
Fast User Switching Compatibility
Help and Support
Indexing Service
IPSEC Services
Machine Debug Manager
Messenger
Net Logon
NetMeeting Remote Desktop Sharing
Network DDE
Network DDE DSDM
Performance Logs &Alerts
Portable Media Serial Number
QoS RSVP
Remote Desktop Help Session Manager
Remote Registry
RIP Listener
Routing & Remote Access
RPC Locator
Secondary Logon
Smart Card
Smart Card Helper
SSDP Discovery Service (needed for UP&P)
Telnet (allows remote access from internet)
Terminal Services (allows remote logins; needed by Fast User Switching, Remote Desktop and Remote Assistance)
Uninterruptible Power Supply
Universal Plug and Play Device Host (used by some broadband routers to allow you to play networked games)
Upload Manager
WebClient
WMI Performance Adaptor

The following services should be set to manual, for the rare cases when they are needed. Right-click each one, choose Properties and select Manual from the Startup type list:

Application Layer Gateway Service (needed by the Internet Connection Sharing and Firewall Services (ICS/ICF))
Application Management
Error Reporting Service (sends crash reports to Microsoft)
IMAPI CD-Burning
Logical Disk Manager
Logical Disk Admin
Windows Installer

The following are needed only for a local network:

Computer Browser
Server (for file and printer sharing)

The following services are not installed by default in XP but may appear on Windows 2000 and, for increased security, should be disabled unless you are absolutely sure you need them running:

IIS Admin
FTP Publishing
Simple MailTransport Protocol
World Wide Web Publishing
Message Queuing
Message Queuing Trigger
NT LM Security Support
Simple TCP Services
SNMP
SNMPTrap
TCP/IP Printer

These services may not be needed on your system. Their names usually make their purpose obvious:

Automatic Updates (but please check Windows Update frequently)
Background Intelligent Transfer (used by Automatic Updates)
Human Interface Device Access (needed by some special keyboards, scanners with copy buttons, and so on)
Internet Connection Firewall
Internet Connection Sharing
Network Location Awareness (needed for ICS)
Themes (all that pretty stuff takes up memory)
Windows Image Acquisition (for scanners, cameras and so on)
Windows Time (sets the clock from the internet)
Wireless Zero Configuration

You may also be able to experiment with disabling the following services. In many cases (eg COM+) it is hard to tell if you have any applications that need them. If you don't know what they do, it is safer to leave them unchanged:

COM+ Event System
COM+ System Application
Cryptographic Services (checks driver signatures, used by Windows Update)MS Software Shadow Copy Provider (used by Backup)
Protected Storage (used by Internet Explorer Autocomplete)
Remote Access Auto Connection (needed by some internet providers)
Remote Access Connection Manager (needed for ICS and some dial-up functions)
Removable Storage (used by some tape drives)
Security Accounts Manager (needed if you use group policy editor)
System Event Notification (works with COM+, needed by some applications)
System Restore Service (this backs up your Registry but uses a lot of resources, disable only if you are sure you don't need it)
Task Scheduler
Telephony (needed for dial-up modems and DSL connections that use PPoE)Volume Shadow Copy (used by Backup)

For further guidance on what each service does, visit www.blackviper.com/ WinXP/service411.htm.