"J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote

| That's not hot. Recently it was in the 34-37 range here.
|
| Yes, but don't you have aircon? Most British homes don't.

I don't use AC. We have fans. And we have a small
window AC that we occasionally use if things get desperate --
like times when it goes over 100. I have AC in my
newest pickup, but only partially use it. The problem with
AC is that unless you use it all the time it's likely to do
more harm than good. One has to keep re-acclimating
between the heat and AC.
Actually I rather like the heat. It's sensual and relaxing,
after months of cold Winter, feeling chilled most of the time.
But it can make one lethargic.

It's true, though, that more people now use AC than
used to. Central AC has become very popular in recent
years. I guess it depends on what you're used to. When
I once visited Britain in December it seemed like I could
never get warm, even though I'm used to a much colder
Winter. I wasn't used to the deep, damp chill of December
in London.

| []
| | together!] to keep on top of all the processes the system runs, and to
| | know whether they're necessary (or what else will break if I stop them,
| | especially in the case of "services").
|
| You probably know about this, but just in case...
|
| http://www.blackviper.com/
|
| You can look up all services there. It does take
| time, though. But something like indexing should
| be safe to stop if you don't need Windows search.
|
| One down (assuming I even _know_ whether I need Windows search or not),
| fifty-odd (guess) to go - and by the time I've researched one, at
| blackviper or elsewhere, including actually _understanding_ what I'm
| told there, how many others will have appeared ... (-:

It is a pain to go through them all. And each Windows
version increases the number. Personally I think it's
worth it. They only have to be sorted out once.
Partly it's for orderliness and efficiency. Partly
to corral the unrequested nonsense like printer software
or iTunes crap that takes the liberty of setting up shop.
I think Skype might run a service, too. Some things are
very intrusive.
But there's also a big security factor. Microsoft regard
corporate customers as their customer base. SOHo
users are a sideline. To that end, Windows is set up
by default to be a corporate workstation. There are
numerous services enabled by default that shouldn't be
running on a standalone machine. It's an entirely
different security model. With the standalone machine,
the security approach is that the user is trusted while
the network is not. A corporate workstation is the opposite:
The network is trusted while the user is not. So Windows
comes set up with extensive file access restrictions but
with "the barn door open". Some of it is downright
nuts. Remote Registry allows your Registry to be edited
from another computer. COM+ allows executable components
to be loaded remotely. Remote Desktop is commonly
exploited by malware and phone scammers. All of the things
that enable functionalty between computers are security
risks on a SOHo computer that's not on a firewalled network.

I have a package I made for XP that might be of some
help. It doesn't include an update for services added in Win7,
but it does provide a 1-stop way to check out running
services and groups them by functionality, giving you some
idea of whether you might need a particular service.

https://www.jsware.net/jsware/xpfix.php5#who1

Black Viper also provides guidelines for setting up a computer
based on your priorities: security, gaming, etc.

It's up to you. If you just don't want to deal with it
you might be able to solve your mystery with a process
monitor of some kind.