Windows Services and Startup

In microsoft.public.windowsxp.general, on Sat, 26 Sep 2015 10:20:57
-0400, "Mayayana" wrote:


I wrote a utility for XP when I first ran into the
services problem:

http://www.jsware.net/jsware/xpfix.php5

This looks very nice. I'm stuck running Vista until I can fix XP,

Will XPFix run on Vista and will it do any good?

You say: " Vista has arrived, followed by Windows 7, which is a minor
update of Vista."

Is Win8 mostly like win7? A minor update? I guess I'm asking to
know if time I spend on Vista or 7 will do me any good when I am forced
to go to 8, or 10.

It's designed to provide an easy tool that allows
me to quickly trim down and tame any XP system
I need to work on. A selective collection of tweaks,
including a basic services trimmer. But it's not
intended for use by people who want an easy solution.
It's more like a partial distillation of the information
that one can get from sources like blackviper.com.

I had been looking up the services and startup programs one at a time.
A real pain. Does he speed this up?

The intent was to narrow down how much people have
to research and understand in order to clean up XP
services. (It also serves as a handy info repository
for me. I spend days or weeks figuring these things
out and then if I don't write it all down I've forgotten
a few months later.

I haven't, so far, made a similar tool for Win7. I do
know that Win7 has a lot more services running by
default. So, a lot more details to figure out.

I'm sure.

"Mayayana" wrote in message
...

| All Windows Services are self-documenting i.e. can be reviewed at
| /start / control panel / admin tools / services.

It can be useful, but it's not designed in the
interest of either security or simplicity. Example:
. . .
Messenger service, unrelated to Windows Messenger,
allows corporate network admins to show messages to
employees. . . .
Not very informative, especially for people with little
experience. If Don depends on those descriptions then I'm
guessing he's never tried to trim down services.

Wrong guess: when I adopted wireless Internet I turned
off all apparently nonessential Services (and restored the
odd one where I misjudged.) Results are satisfactory and
have been unchanged for 6+ years. I plan to continue using
XP (SP3) until forced by essential new hardware.
--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

| I wrote a utility for XP when I first ran into the
| services problem:
|
| http://www.jsware.net/jsware/xpfix.php5
|
| This looks very nice. I'm stuck running Vista until I can fix XP,
|
| Will XPFix run on Vista and will it do any good?
|

Much of it, like removing Windows File Protectionand most of
the tweaks, are XP-specific. The services should be relevant,
but there are a lot more new ones on Vista. (The iframes
block is still relevant, but outdated. I should fix that. As
written it hides iframes but does not prevent them loading.
One needs to block frames for that.)

| You say: " Vista has arrived, followed by Windows 7, which is a minor
| update of Vista."
|

Win7 was basically Vista with more tolerable
defaults. Vista brought in UAC. Win7 provided
mitigation of that. Hardware was also more
up to date with Win7, so the Aero bloat that
caused so many problems with Vista wasn't a
problem with Win7.
Thus, Vista is hated and Win7 is loved. That's
often the case. The OS is judged by its defaults.


| Is Win8 mostly like win7? A minor update? I guess I'm asking to
| know if time I spend on Vista or 7 will do me any good when I am forced
| to go to 8, or 10.

As far as I can tell, Win8 is Win7 with Metro
tacked on. I haven't used it much.
Vista/7/8 have different issues. Win10 is a
whole other can of beans. (Win7/8 may also be
if you don't block microsoft's spyware install.)
But there are so many different issues, and people
feeling differently about them, that it doesn't
seem realistic to fully discuss them.

For myself, I try to stay with XP and use 7
sparingly, without updates enabled. If I have
to move on I'd prefer moving as little as possible.
I can tolerate Vista/7. Win8 is unforgiveable.
On the other hand, it looks like a lifeboat next
to Win10.

| that one can get from sources like blackviper.com.
|
| I had been looking up the services and startup programs one at a time.
| A real pain. Does he speed this up?
|
He provides useful, clear information about how
the different services work and interact. If you
want to adjust services then you really need to
figure out those details. Blackviper doesn't so
much make the job easier as he provides the
necessary knowledge that Microsoft *should*
have provided.

In message , Mayayana
writes:
[]
I wrote a utility for XP when I first ran into the
services problem:

http://www.jsware.net/jsware/xpfix.php5

It's designed to provide an easy tool that allows
me to quickly trim down and tame any XP system
I need to work on. A selective collection of tweaks,
including a basic services trimmer. But it's not
intended for use by people who want an easy solution.

Thanks - it looks most useful.
(Very near the bottom of the above page - in the bit about IconsXP - you
have a link to Icon Restore. Which is now a dead link, unfortunately.)
[]
services. (It also serves as a handy info repository
for me. I spend days or weeks figuring these things
out and then if I don't write it all down I've forgotten
a few months later.

IKWYM (-:

I haven't, so far, made a similar tool for Win7. I do
know that Win7 has a lot more services running by
default. So, a lot more details to figure out.

If you do, it will be welcomed (-:!


--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

After a typical day at the BBC you want something to take your mind off work,
although in the end, decent people being eaten alive by heartless monsters
running amok proved no distraction. - Eddie Mair, RT 2015/7/4-10

J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
In message , Mayayana
writes:
[]
I wrote a utility for XP when I first ran into the
services problem:

http://www.jsware.net/jsware/xpfix.php5

It's designed to provide an easy tool that allows
me to quickly trim down and tame any XP system
I need to work on. A selective collection of tweaks,
including a basic services trimmer. But it's not
intended for use by people who want an easy solution.

Thanks - it looks most useful.
(Very near the bottom of the above page - in the bit about IconsXP - you
have a link to Icon Restore. Which is now a dead link, unfortunately.)
[]

Here's a link for Icon Restore (from MajorGeeks site):
http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/deta...n_restore.html

Hmmm. Might be worth trying XPFix again. I guess the trick is knowing
which services you can safely disable, however. Better keep some backups
handy, or some good notes. :-)

services. (It also serves as a handy info repository
for me. I spend days or weeks figuring these things
out and then if I don't write it all down I've forgotten
a few months later.

IKWYM (-:

I haven't, so far, made a similar tool for Win7. I do
know that Win7 has a lot more services running by
default. So, a lot more details to figure out.

If you do, it will be welcomed (-:!


--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

After a typical day at the BBC you want something to take your mind off
work,
although in the end, decent people being eaten alive by heartless monsters
running amok proved no distraction. - Eddie Mair, RT 2015/7/4-10

On 2015-09-26 09:20, Mayayana wrote:

| You see any problems with doing this for every single service? I'm
| thinking this would be great for services using the network; I could
| finally control them with the firewall...
|

I do that by simply not needing any remote services.
I block any instance of svchost going out. Do you know
a firewall that can block one instance of svchost but
not another? I don't.

The Windoze firewall (Win7+) can /almost/ do this. When you create a
rule for SVCHOST, you CAN specify a service. When a SVCHOST tries to
access the network, Windows will check if the service you specified is
running inside that host. If it is, the host is allowed. It's just that
if you want to allow 1 service in/out, and it runs along 20 others
inside a single host, you're effectively allowing all of those services.
Also, it doesn't always work; I've had to create a rule that allows
plain SVCHOST (no service specified) for some subnets, because I
couldn't get it to work when specifying a single service...

Best Regards,

--
! _\|/_ Sylvain /
! (o o) Member-+-David-Suzuki-Fdn/EFF/Red+Cross/Planetary-Society-+-
oO-( )-Oo Error 13: Insufficient user IQ.

| (Very near the bottom of the above page - in the bit about IconsXP - you
| have a link to Icon Restore. Which is now a dead link, unfortunately.)

Thanks. I 'll update that. Here's a link
that works, and major geeks, in my
experience, is one of the very few software
download sites that's still legitimate:

http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/deta...n_restore.html

In message , Mayayana
writes:
| (Very near the bottom of the above page - in the bit about IconsXP - you
| have a link to Icon Restore. Which is now a dead link, unfortunately.)

Thanks. I 'll update that. Here's a link
that works, and major geeks, in my
experience, is one of the very few software
download sites that's still legitimate:

http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/deta...n_restore.html

Thanks (and to Bill for the same link).

FWIW, for remembering icon positions, I've used EZdesk for years
(possibly decades!), but it doesn't work on 7, then iconoid from
sillysot - and desktopOK (I think that's what it's called) on the work
machine where iconoid wouldn't run. But extra ones are always useful to
know about. DesktopOK does have the option of saving the results in an
actual file (a .dok file), which means it doesn't rely on using the
registry.

--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

A clean, neat and orderly desk is a sign of a sick mind. (G6JPG's mind is
clearly extremely healthy ...)

On Fri, 25 Sep 2015 01:45:54 +0100, Dave Doe wrote:

In article , ,
OldGuy says...

Looking at MSCONFIG and wondering...

Is there any free tool that will tell me what each of the items in
Services and Startup does and if it is really necessary for proper
windows operations?

Trying to speed up my Windows.
I know what my virus scanner is doing so let's skip that discussion.

WIN XP - everything starts a boot up
Win 7 - I read somewhere that stuff does not start at boot but when
needed.

Most important to me is if there is a tool about services and startups.



--- news://freenews.netfront.net/ - complaints: ---

*Don't* use MSCONFIG to disable services and startups - if you do,
msconfig runs at every startup. Use it to *view* startups and services
only.

A much better way, is to use Piriform's Crap Cleaner (CCleaner). You
can download it here...
http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/download

I've always used "autoruns" (was by Sysinternals, before they sold out to
MS)

I didn't realise CC also had that function!

It has a Tools section, in which you can simply *disable* startups,
without deleting them. That way, you can re-enable 'em if required.



--
Bah, and indeed, Humbug