Windows XP: List of Services to Disable to Increase Speed

Contributor Icon Contributed by AlexTheBeast  
Tag Icon Tagged: Windows  

XP has a ton of services enabled by default.  By knowing what these services do (or don’t 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 take a CPU = air conditioner analogy.If you use your A/C during the summer, it’s helpful. If you use it during the winter, it’s a waste. Here is my suggestions for the settings of the services:

If you ever find something not working correctly, you should reset it. However, these are the services that I disable. This guide is very conservative. Many of these services are activated even though only the minority of users will need them. 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. Click Start
2. Click Settings
3. Select Control Panel
4. Double click Administrative Tools
5. Double click Services
6. Scroll down and highlight the service you want to adjust 
7. Right-click on it and choose Properties
8. Click the stop button.
9. 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. As smart cards have really never taken off… i doubt you need this. Kill it.
  2. TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper service – Unless you run NetBIOS on your system, you don’t need this service. Kill it.
  3. Uninterruptible Power Supply – Although I should have a UPS, I don’t. If you don’t, then disable this service.
  4. Remote Registry service – This service allows one to remotely edit the registry through a network connection. If you are editing your registry remotely, then you are too jedi-ninja to be reading this guide. The rest of us should have this off for security alone.
  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 always log-in the same way as the same person, you should disable this.
  11. Messenger Service – Kill it, kill it. We’ve been saying to kill this forever.
  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. However, you should not have it enabled unless you use 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.SP2 disables it by default now.

Editor Note: If you want to be able to enable and disable a bunch of services rapidly (say before and after a gaming session), you can easily design a batch file to do it for you.

 

19 Comments -


  1. Mike said on October 21, 2008

    Very nice guide!! thanks!!!

  2. Rahul said on November 9, 2008

    Awesome Dude!!!! Thnx a Ton!!!

  3. Bill Dino said on January 3, 2009

    Thanks a lot! all that junk that runs in the background slow down the computer, if you don’t need them, get rid of ‘em!!! Thanks

  4. zefo said on January 9, 2009

    thanks man

  5. era said on March 21, 2009

    thanx…………..maxa

  6. DeLonghi Pinguino said on March 24, 2009

    this is such great information. thanks for the insight.

  7. Mrinal said on June 5, 2009

    no doubt very great info…….Thanx man!!

  8. Al said on June 24, 2009

    cheers bud :) handy to know

  9. Joel said on July 17, 2009

    Cheers, joels gay

  10. saeed said on July 25, 2009

    Very nice guide!! but we want mor……… thanks

  11. Marci Steinfink said on December 22, 2009

    This worked immediately! Thank you Thank you!

  12. Jai said on February 21, 2010

    I just did before seeing this post in my computer, cross checked here :D

  13. Anonymous said on March 16, 2010

    itrs realy increce my computer speed thank you

  14. Anonymous said on May 6, 2010

    This was extremely helpful and useful! Thanks!

  15. vijay said on June 4, 2010

    Thanks

  16. Khan Hussain said on July 20, 2010

    was very helpful…thanks

  17. Rajkvr_2682 said on October 18, 2010

    thanks for a information

    Raju.K ( Smart Tech )

  18. Jeesshnasri said on March 26, 2011

    after restasrt , these settings will work ?
    or this is temporarily.

  19. Jose said on November 13, 2011

    while disabling these services mentioned here, I noticed there is a secondary
    option to disable in the LOGON TAB / PROFILE * but which remains ENABLED even after you disable the service unless you actually select “disable”, click “apply”, and then “ok”.

 

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