Monday, April 15, 2019

How To: Windows Services - What are they and is it safe to stop any of them?

Windows Services
are a core component of Microsoft Windows and enable the creation and management of long-running processes.
Services broadly fall into three categories depending on the actions and applications they control: Local Services, Network Services and System. Third party applications such as antivirus and printing software may install their own software.

Unlike regular applications, Windows Services do not have a user interface; they run in the background and the user does not directly interact with them. Unless stopped by the user, a Windows Service does not stop when a user logs off the computer; a regular application will.





That being said, having a multitude of services running may slow your system down. You can stop & disable certain services to speed up your system.
Most System services should NOT be stopped, but there are other services which may bog down your system and may be stopped.

Before diving into the Services and disabling/stopping certain services it's highly recommended you create a Restore Point and do a backup as well for your documents and pics...etc.
This way if things get awkward within Windows, you can go back to the restore point.

Windows 10 Services which are safe to disable.
1. AllJoyn Router Service
2. Application Layer Gateway Service
3. Bluetooth Support Service
4. BranchCache
5. Certificate Propagation
6. CNG Key Isolation
7. DMWAPPUSHSVC
8. Downloaded Maps Manager
9. Diagnostic Tracking Services - (Windows Phone home tracking service also called Telemetry)
10. Geolocation Service
11. HomeGroup Listener
12. HomeGroup Provider
13. Hyper-V Data Exchange Service
14. Hyper-V Guest Service Interface
15. Hyper-V Guest Shutdown Service
16. Hyper-V Heartbeat Service
17. Hyper-V Remote Desktop Virtualization Service
18. Hyper-V Time Synchronization Service
19. Hyper-V VM Session Service
20. Hyper-V Volume Shadow Copy Requestor
21. Internet Connection Sharing (ICS)
22. Internet Explorer ETW Collector Service
23. IP Helper
24. Microsoft (R) Diagnostics Hub Standard Collector Service
25. Microsoft iSCSI Initiator Service
26. Microsoft Windows SMS Router Service
27. Netlogon
28. Offline Files
29. Print Spooler (leave enabled if you want to use printer)
30. Printer Extensions and Notifications
31. Remote Access Auto Connection Manager
32. Remote Access Connection Manager
33. Remote Desktop Configuration
34. Remote Desktop Services
35. Remote Desktop Services UserMode Port Director
36. Remote Procedure Call (RPC) Locator
37. Remote Registry
38. Retail Demo Service
39. Routing and Remote Access
40. Sensor Data Service
42. Sensor Monitoring Service
43. Sensor Service
44. Smart Card Device Enumeration Service
45. Smart Card Removal Policy
46. SNMP Trap
47. Storage Service
48. Superfetch
49. SSDP Discovery
50. Touch Keyboard and Handwriting Panel Service
51. Windows Biometric Service
52. Windows Connect Now - Config Registrar
53. Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service
54. Windows Mobile Hotspot Service
55. Windows Remote Management (WS-Management)
56. Windows Font Cache Service.
57. Workstation
58. Xbox Live Auth Manager
59. Xbox Live Game Save
60. XboxNetApiSvc

Britec has an excellent video on which Services you can disable/stop.