There are different services running in the background of Windows XP. Many of them are handy for a user in one environment and completely irrelevant for users using XP in another environment. While these services are running in the background of Windows XP, RAM resources are being consumed by each of them whether they are coming into your use or not.
For example, there is a windows service called "Print Spooler" whose job is to queue up the printing tasks that are pending. For a user who has a printer, it is an indispensable windows service. But on the other hand there are users who never need to use a printer with their PC. In their case this windows service is just a useless consumption of RAM. These windows services are set by default so that a standard windows installation never lacks services necessary for the diverse needs of different users who use windows in different environments.
Many windows services are really not useful for majority of common computer users. You can disable many of them very safely to speed up PC.
By disabling one such service, you set your computer's memory resources free, each time. Hence there is more RAM space available for your programs to run smoothly, as a result the PC performance speeds up and the windows startup is also faster. When you customize these services you can see a very major difference in the performance speed of your PC.
Windows Service Customization - Quick Guide to Speed Up PC
- Click Start > Run
- Type services.msc and press OK. This opens the windows services management window that lists all windows services.
- To disable a windows service, double click it in the list. Then in Startup type drop down menu select Disable.
The following is a list of carefully selected windows services that you can safely disable in a common windows user environment. Reverting back to default settings is as easy as 1 2 3. Below I will provide you with a resource that lists the default status of each service, so that you can revert back to the previous configuration if you want.
List of Services that Can be Safely Disabled to Speed Up PC
- Application Layer Gateway
- Distributed Link Tracking Client
- Error Reporting Service
- Help and Support
- Indexing Service
- Logical Disk Manager (Set to Manual)
- Messenger
- Net Logon
- NetMeeting Remote Desktop Sharing
- Network DDE
- Network Provisioning Service
- Portable Media Serial Number Service
- QoS RSVP
- Remote Desktop Help Session Manager
- Remote Registry
- Removable Storage
- RPC Locator
- Secondary Logon
- Smart Card
- TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper Service
- Telnet
- Uninterruptible Power Supply
- WebClient
- Windows Time
- WMI Performance Adapter
Note: You may not find some of these services listed in your windows service management console due to the difference of services in different Windows Service Packs. To revert back to the default windows service settings, refer to the link given below. It also provides a few-click solution to reset windows services to default status.
For information on removing additional windows services that may not be useful specifically for you (certainly there will be some, since the above windows services are the most carefully sorted out services that can be disabled), I feel appropriate to present you link of a site I've come across where the author has very intelligently presented windows service settings for three different levels of Windows users.
These settings are provided for Windows XP Service Pack 2 and Service Pack 3 separately. Here is the link that takes you to the settings page for Service Pack 3 users.
Windows XP Service Pack 3 Service Configurations
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