Disabling unneeded services

[Prushka]

I have a single WinXp

Do I need the following services?
Should I set them to disable?

Remote decktop help session manager
Remote procedure call (rpc) locater
Routing and remote access

Also, I have disabled:
SSDP discovery service
Universal plug and play device host
Do USB connections (a printer) require either of these

And finally, are there any other services I can disable, which I would have no need for.

Your comments are appreciated...Thanks

[Steve R Jones]

Read away:

Through our support service we often come across problems caused primarily by programs running in the background, programs which in most cases start at the same time as Windows. Sometimes these programs are useful and need to be there; quite often, however, they are not needed, and in too many cases they cause severe problems, and this includes some Microsoft "Services" !


http://www.answersthatwork.com/Tasklist_pages/tasklist.htm

[Prushka]

Thanks...I read it now

I see now that:
'Remote procedure call' has a lot of dependencies

[cat5e]

While in general I agree with Steve R Jones.

I came across a lot of people that spent many days tearing their hair down, just to find out that something does not work because they disable a service.

While there are services that Do one defined Job, some Network related services might be needed depending on the Network related applications and the way you system set.

Some new applications might not work correctly if certain services are not available, and some applications create their own service.

I would suggest to set services that you are not sure about to manual and then periodically when you are already few hours into your work and used variety of applications take a glance and see if the manually set services started, If after a while you found that it never started try to disable the service.

As for your list.

Remote desktop help session manager.
If you are Not using Remote Desktop you can disable the service.

Remote procedure call (rpc) locater
I would put this one on Manual.

Routing and remote access.
If you have a regular Home Network with regular Cable/DSL Router you can Disable this service.

DP discovery service
Universal plug and play device host.*
If you are Not Using Universal plug and play, you can disable both

Do USB connections (a printer) require either of these?
No USB is not related to the two above.

Note* Universal plug and play is Not the Plug and Play service.

Plug and Play has to be on Auto Start.

:t

[Prushka]

Thanks Steve, that site is helpful

And Cat...you're so thorough

Left... Remote procedure call (rpc) locater...on manual

And added these to disabled:
TaskSchedular
Network DDE & DDE DSDM
Net Meeting Remote
Messenger

I believe these are safe

Apparently Comcast needs 'Routing and remote access'
easy enough to reset to manual

[omendata]

I would agree with catman
Unless you are an expert in services best not to fiddle!

If you do then the best site on the net for WinXP services and more is at :-

http://www.blackviper.com/

:t

[cdroman]

I agree with omen and cat.

I just disable system restore and remote registry and leave everything else at default. Have experimented with all the sites BV etc. and have found that disabling all these services really makes little or no difference if you have a decent amount of ram. If you disable a lot of services sooner or later you will end up with something that will not work properly as a result.

[omendata]

Ditto
:t

Although for complete security of your system it is an art!

I use batch files to start services when required

@echo Starting Server Service and requested systems

net start "server"
net start "print spooler"
net start "computer browser"
net start "AVG6 service"
net start "Workstation"
NET start "Windows Image Acquisition (WIA)"

for example

if you need to kill not services but processes i use this

taskkill /F /IM wcescomm.exe
taskkill /F /IM linespeedmeter.exe
taskkill /F /IM client01.exe
rem taskkill /F /IM "FreeRAM XP Pro 1.31.exe"
taskkill /F /IM mbm5.exe
taskkill /F /IM seti@home.exe
pause

It would take me a full days training to go through all the lockdowns

but i set to manual startup all the services i want to start
and totally disable the ones i know i dont need

disable
upnp
ssdp
tcpip netbios helper
remote desktop helper
etc
etc

manual
server
workstation
et al

there is more

its up to you to make the system work when you want it to through command line scripts and small 'c++' exes for those more tricky solutions

bon chance
:-@
:t

[Prushka]

Appreciate all the feed back :)

Although after reading this:

http://www.microsuck.com/content/ms-hidden-files.shtml

I wonder who is the biggest spyware creten out there :confused:

[richard_cocks]

omendata: seems you've got really to grips with the windows cmdline, where did you pick it all up? Help generally regarding the cmd line in windows is fairly rare (except from MSDN which is chock full of info, but other sites don't seem to assimilate this info into more helpful guides).

[cdroman]

Originally posted by omendata
Ditto
:t

Although for complete security of your system it is an art!

I use batch files to start services when required


:-@
:t

I cheat and use my firewall to secure my system.

[omendata]

Yeah Richard but then again I am an old machine code programmer - Old habits die hard!

Yeah there are a lot of hidden batch commands and switches that can come in quite useful. Im a programmer so I like the challenge of doing everything myself!

Yeah nice firewall Cdromgeeza but i find most of them a hassle!

I like to do it the hard way - I use XP's built in firewall
I have a router and hardware firewall as well but too much security is never enough!!!

[richard_cocks]

Do you use the standard windows cmd prompt or have you replaced it with cygwin or soemthing else?

[omendata]

Standard dos prompt!

I like DR-DOS and just to make it that bit different I like to stick in a bit of compiled COBOLG or COBOL85
:p
:D

[richard_cocks]

Are you willing to share your scripts?

[omendata]

I thought i just did!
lol
:t

[richard_cocks]

heh sorry I have a tendency of just missing out reading chunks of text :S

[omendata]

Bit of a cock-up eh

God Ive been dying to say that since i saw your ifrst post!
Must have been a hard life at school!

Hehe
;)
:t
:D

[Prushka]

Here is a WinXP system services site that someone at sysopt posted a while back. My favorites list has increased exponentially since coming to sysopt...which is a good thing

http://www.overclockersclub.com/guides/windows_xp_services.php

In addition to your caution/recom. I found this guy to be pretty clear and added a few more to disable and all is well...but time will tell.

And this too added a little info.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windowsserver2003/technologies/management/svrxpser_7.mspx