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What Processes are Necessary for Windows XP?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the minimum-processes-required dept.

Brickwall asks: "I studied electrical engineering in university (30 years ago, mind!), so I'm not completely stupid about computers. However, I have searched and searched, and been unable to find an answer to this question: if you start up Windows XP from scratch, what processes should be running? I have some P2P software running, so I know I'll have to shut that down, plus my spyware protection, anti-virus software, etc. But what should be left running? Is this documented somewhere that I've been unable to find?"

4 of 120 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Dumb question by Sigma+7 · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Will they charge the card? I dont know.


    Their support policy allows 2 no-charge support requests by phone or e-mail. There is unlimited installation support by phone. There is also free support through newsgroups and partners.

    The more advanced versions of Windows XP do not have this charge.

  2. Re:Black Viper's list by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    4-6 hours tweaking services? Right. Even when using the list as a reference, it takes at tops 15 minutes to tweak services.

    You also seem to forget that on slower systems the performance boost will be far more noticeable than on a gaming rig. Along the same lines, the time it takes to completely load WinXP into a useable state will decrease. That "10mb" can make a huge difference on a system with low memory - much like the ones they initially shipped WinXP on.

  3. Re:It's simple. by Jherico · · Score: 5, Insightful

    That's an excellent way to completely screw up your machine by disabling services that might be needed later for things like printing. If you shut down the spooler and then 3 weeks later need to print something you can spend a long time trying to figure out why printing doesn't work.

    --

    Jherico

    What can the average user can do to ensure his security? "Nothing, you're screwed"

  4. Disabled, Manual, Automatic by Ahnteis · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Setting a service to "Disabled" will usually stop it from starting even if needed. Setting it to "Manual" means that it won't start until it's needed. This will result in long "start" time for some activities, but less overhead when you aren't using the service.

    When in doubt, set the service to "Manual". When it's something you never want running (Remote Registry for example) set to "Disabled".