Windows 7 comes with a slew of services, which might not be that important to your computer.

If you are running Windows 7 on a personal laptop, home computer, or computer where you can control the services yourself, you might want to look at stopping some of the services to improve performance. If you are a corporate network administrator, you should also look closely at the overall list of services, as some of them are not needed for your corporate network desktops. Like always, never take settings and suggestions like these verbatim, be sure to test them in your specific environment. Although I have been able to run my personal laptop, production desktop, and even corporate desktops where I have contracted. Name of Service ActiveX Installer (AxInstSV) Adaptive Brightness Application Experience Application Identity Application Information Application Layer Gateway Service Application Management Background Intelligent Transfer Service Base Filtering Engine Bitlocker Drive Encryption Service Block Level Backup Engine Service Bluetooth Support Services BranchCache Certificate Propagation CNG Key Isolation COM+ Event System COM+ System Application Computer Browser Credential Manager Cryptographic Services DCOM Server Process Launcher Desktop Window Manager Session Manager DHCP Client Diagnostic Policy Service Diagnostic Service host Diagnostic System Host Disk Defragmenter Distributed Link Tracking Client Distributed Transaction Coordinator DNS Client Default Startup Mode Manual Manual Manual Manual Manual Manual Manual Manual Automatic Manual Manual Manual Manual Manual Manual Automatic Manual Manual Manual Automatic Automatic Automatic Automatic Automatic Automatic Manual Manual Automatic Manual Automatic Possible Startup Mode Manual Disabled Manual Manual Manual Disabled Disabled Manual Automatic Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled Manual Automatic Manual Disabled Manual Automatic Automatic Automatic Automatic Automatic Automatic Manual Disabled Automatic Manual Automatic

Encrypting File System (EFS) Extensible Authentication Protocol Fax Function Discovery Provider Host Function Discovery Resource Publication Group Policy Client Health Key and Certificate Management HomeGroup Listener HomeGroup Provider Human Interface Device Access IKE and AuthIP IPsec Keying Modules Interactive Services Detection Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) IP Helper IPsec Policy Agent KtmRm for Distributed Transaction Coordinator Link-Layer Topology Discovery Mapper Media Center Extender Service Microsoft .NET Framework NGEN v2.0.50727_X86 Microsoft iSCSI Initiator Service Microsoft Software Shadow Copy Multimedia Class Scheduler Net.Tcp Port Sharing Service Netlogon Network Access Protection Agent Network Connections Network List Service Network Location Awareness Network Store Interface Service Offline Files Parental Controls Peer Name Resolution Protocol Peer Networking Grouping Peer Networking Identity Manager Performance Counter DLL Host Performance Logs & Alerts

Manual Manual Manual Manual Manual Automatic Manual Manual Manual Manual Manual Manual Disabled Automatic Manual Manual Manual Disabled Manual Manual Manual Automatic Disabled Manual Manual Manual Manual Automatic Automatic Automatic Manual Manual Manual Manual Manual Manual

Disabled Manual Disabled Manual Disabled Automatic Disabled Disabled Disabled Manual Manual Manual Disabled Automatic Manual Manual Disabled Disabled Manual Manual Manual Automatic Disabled Manual Manual Manual Manual Automatic Automatic Disabled Disabled Manual Manual Manual Disabled Disabled

Plug and Play Automatic PnP-X IP Bus Enumerator Manual PNRP Machine Name Publication Manual Service Portable Device Enumerator Service Manual Power Automatic Print Spooler Automatic Problem Reports and Solutions Manual Control Panel Support Program Compatibility Assistant Manual Service Protected Storage Manual Quality Windows Audio Video Manual Experience Remote Access Auto Connection Manual Manager Remote Access Connection Manual Manager Remote Procedure Call (RPC) Automatic Remote Procedure Call (RPC) Manual Locator Remote Registry Manual Routing and Remote Access Disabled RPC Endpoint Mapper Automatic Secondary Logon Manual Secure Socket Tunneling Protocol Manual Service Security Accounts Manager Automatic Security Center Automatic (Delayed Start) Server Automatic Shell Hardware Detection Automatic Smart Card Manual Smart Card Removal Policy Manual SNMP Trap Manual Software Protection Automatic SPP Notification Service Manual SSDP Discovery Manual Superfetch Automatic System Event Notification Service Automatic Tablet PC Input Service Automatic Task Scheduler Automatic TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper Automatic

Automatic Manual Manual Manual Automatic Automatic Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled Automatic Manual Manual Disabled Automatic Manual Disabled for desktops, enabled for laptops Automatic Automatic Automatic Automatic Disabled Manual Disabled Automatic Manual Manual Automatic Automatic Disabled Automatic Automatic

Telephony Themes Thread Ordering Server TP AutoConnect Service TPM Base Services UPnP Device Host User Profile Service Virtual Disk Volume Shadow Copy WebClient Windows Audio Windows Audio Endpoint Builder Windows Backup Windows CardSpace Windows Color System Windows Connect Now - Config Registrar Windows Defender Windows Driver Foundation - Usermode Driver Framework Windows Error Reporting Service Windows Event Collector Windows Event Log Windows Firewall Windows Font Cache Service Windows Image Acquisition (WIA) Windows Installer Windows Management Instrumentation Windows Media Center Receiver Service Windows Media Center Scheduler Service Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service Windows Modules Installer Windows Presentation Foundation Font Cache 3.0.0.0 Windows Remote Management (WS-Management) Windows Search Windows Time Windows Update

Manual Automatic Manual Manual Manual Manual Automatic Manual Manual Manual Automatic Automatic Manual Manual Manual Manual Automatic Automatic Manual Manual Automatic Automatic Manual Manual Manual Automatic Manual Manual Manual Manual Manual Manual Automatic Automatic Automatic (Delayed

Disabled Automatic Manual Manual Manual Manual Automatic Manual Manual Disabled Automatic Automatic Manual Disabled Disabled Disabled Automatic Automatic Disabled Disabled Automatic Automatic Manual Disabled Manual Automatic Disabled Disabled Disabled Manual Manual Manual Automatic Automatic Automatic (Delay Start)

WinHTTP Web Proxy AutoDiscovery Service Wired AutoConfig WLAN AutoConfig WMI Performance Adapter Workstation

Start) Manual Manual Manual Manual Automatic

Manual Disabled Disabled for LAN, Enabled for Wireless Manual Automatic

How to Proceed
For your laptops and desktops for both your personal and corporate environments, be sure to setup a test computer or pilot group and make sure that all other functions on the computer work before you proceed with rolling this out to all computers on your network. In my experience, disabling the services above has given me significant performance enhancements by removing the services from running. In most cases the services were not running (set to manual and not started), but in many cases the services were running and were just taking up memory and processing time. The other benefit to disabling services that are not needed is that it reduces your attack surface. The fewer services running means the fewer ports open, which means the fewer viruses and worms, will function on your computer. If a feature or function fails to work after disabling services, just re-enable the service to manual or automatic. If you are uncertain which service is required, you can look at the service descriptions on your computer services list or check online for a description of your feature and which service is required.