Windows 7 - What crap can I turn off running in the background?

buchtis said:
Ta for all the replies.

I'm just used to having a finely tuned machine and this is the 1st time i've used Windows 7. I don't see the point of having services and programmes running in the background that are of no use to me hence why I want them turned off. Just a bit iffy about these things that's all.

I don't see why I have to have 41 things running in the background while i'm running no programmes and i'm just on the desktop.
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Windows 7 is already very efficient. Services that appear to be running are likely to be using next to nothing in terms of resources and will have zero impact on your gaming/editing/porn.

There are services you can disable if you know you don't use that feature - such as HomeGroup, but generally it is better not to meddle. As I said previously, you have far more to lose than you could possibly hope to gain.
 
SiriusB said:
None of those will drastically increase performance, if at all. Even Windows Search isn't particularly resource heavy [and is very good btw, but that's an argument for a different thread].

They do however decrease annoyance - especially with HomeGroup and WMP Sharing if you do not use them.
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Yes. Totally agree. I've only disabled them because I know I will never-ever use them, not to squeeze out performance.

There's no harm in disabling a few services you will never use rather than just having them running in the background. :)
 
Do you only ever have two cans of beer in your fridge and the rest still in the pack just in case you need the space in your fridge? That's XP thinking.
You can choose to use the Win7 way of working which is to fill the fridge with beer and then remove some as the space is needed for other things.

Windows 7 uses free resources to remember what your most used actions or programs are for better responsiveness, and hands them over when something more pressing comes along.

I've been trying to get my uncle to change from the XP to W7 way of thinking, he still "strips" his machine down every weekend because "the hard drive light goes crazy when I stop using it.", even though I've explained Superfetch and the Search Indexer to him.

:)
 
Sorry OP but people like you make me laugh. Don't wish to sound insulting but you sound so anal about the performance of your PC.
How many extra FPS do you think you are going to achieve?
 
Personally, without trying to echo the entire thread, I think you're going about it the wrong way.

The absolute best way to use Windows 7 is to just install and use it. Leave it alone (it would only be a matter of time before we have the 'I can't do this on windows 7' thread and it would probably be down to a tweak thats been made).

Once you've experienced it out of the box, so to speak, then is the time to tweak. And only tweak if you really want to do something out of the norm. I find, after having the same installation for over a year, that it's absolutely fine.

Turning off all of the features that make Windows 7 really fun and nice to use (Aero, etc.) is pointless and you won't see any of the advantages over Windows XP that people really like. The days of endlessly tweaking XP for a few more FPS are really gone.


M.
 
Personally I think you're far too paranoid, Windows can manage your PC's resources a lot better than you or I can. My laptop (Core i5, nVidia 425M, 6Gb ram) is running 61 processes and I'm not loosing sleep over it :). With your rig you have absolutely no reason to panic over 41 processes. Disabling Aero for performance purposes is like putting go faster stripes on a car......
 
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I often turn off Print Spooler service if there is never going to be a printer attached to the PC.

Turning off Aero Glass is a false economy. What you save in GPU RAM, you lose in CPU usage.
 
Disable all non-vital services:
Server, Tablet PCs, Print spooler, Workstation, telephony, 2nd logon, Network discovery, Windows Firewall, Windows Search, Indexing, Windows Time, Network awareness, Diagnostics, Shell Hardware, Error Reporting, Aero, Defender, Themes, Security Center, System Restore

Set Windows appearance to:
Performance

Finally, set desktop background to a solid colour for extra 3Dmarks.
 
buchtis said:
Ta for all the replies.

I'm just used to having a finely tuned machine and this is the 1st time i've used Windows 7. I don't see the point of having services and programmes running in the background that are of no use to me hence why I want them turned off. Just a bit iffy about these things that's all.

I don't see why I have to have 41 things running in the background while i'm running no programmes and i'm just on the desktop.
Click to expand...


Quite honestly if you weren't able to see how many services were running I bet you wouldn't be able to tell if it was 50 or 20, tinker less play more :)
 
This is the first one I’ve stopped tweaking. Windows 7 performs very well out of the box. It manages resources extremely well. I can’t see why anybody would want to waste their time on so called tweaks that are not measurable and secondly may impair the performance of the system. Tweaking days were numbered in Vista and they are over in Windows 7.

OP’s hardware is more than adequate to give a very good windows “experience”. For god’s sake OP switch Aero back on. :D
 
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I don't understand why everyone seems to like Windows 7. I've tried XP and Windows 7 on the same machine (a new mid range system) and it runs much smoother on a tweaked XP than it does with Windows 7. Win7 has so many retarded and annoying features and I hate the start menu.. XP in proper classic mode is way better, I wouldn't even call Windows 7 a professional operating system.
 
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