Windows Services are executable programs that run constantly in the background and perform specific functions on their own. Users with administrator privileges can choose a default startup behavior for these services. For instance, they can be set to start at system boot, paused and restarted whenever required, or simply disabled. While some services come with the operating system by default, at times different third party software also add their own services. While leaving the services running in the background allows certain tools and utilities to function better, disabling the ones you don’t need can also increase the performance of your system. In what follows, we’ll guide you through the process of starting, stopping and disabling Windows Services.
how to disable windows system services
Before you start or stop a service, it is important to know its function so that stopping it does not disrupt any important Windows feature or task. If you know the exact nature of a particular service, you can disable it if you don’t need that feature. For example, if you do not use Bluetooth devices with your system, there no need to have its service running all the time and you can easily disable the Bluetooth Support Service without an issue. Since you can start or stop a service anytime that you like, you can even use this feature for the services that you use very rarely to keep them disabled or stopped and enabling them only when required. Continuing with the aforementioned example, if you connect a Bluetooth device to the computer once every two weeks, you can turn on the service whenever needed and keep it off by default.
You can easily access the Services dialog box from the start menu to view and control all services. Moreover, third party tools, such as Windows Service Monitor and Services Monitor can also be used to manage Windows services, both locally and remotely.
In order to start or stop a service or choose its startup type, open the Services dialog box by searching for ‘services’ in the Start Menu search field.
It will open the list of local services installed on your system. Look through the list for the required service and double-click it to open the properties dialog box.
In order to be able to manually start and stop the service, change the Start-up type to Manual and click OK. This is useful if you don’t want the service to automatically run and consume resources all the time, but still be accessible on demand whenever required by any operation you perform.
Now, you can easily Start, Stop, Pause, Resume, and Restart the service at any time you like.
safe-to-disable services
As stated earlier, knowledge about the services that can be disabled without a problem is very important. Here is a list of Windows Services that can be safely disabled without any adverse effect on your computer.
- Tablet PC Input Service (in Windows 7) / Touch Keyboard and Handwriting Panel Service (Windows 8)
- Windows Time
- Secondary logon (Will disable fast user switching)
- Fax
- Print Spooler
- Offline Files
- Routing and Remote Access Service
- Bluetooth Support Service
- BitLocker Drive Encryption Service
- Encrypting File System
- Certificate Propagation
- Microsoft iSCSI Initiator Service
- Netlogon
- Parental Controls (in Windows 7) / Family Safety (in Windows 8)
- Remote Desktop Configuration
- Remote Desktop Services
- Remote Desktop Services UserMode Port Redirector
- Smart Card
- Smart Card Removal Policy
- Windows Connect Now
- Windows Firewall
- Windows Error Reporting Service
- Remote Registry
- Windows Defender
Head over to the source link to know the details of each service and its Safe setting.