Tip 10: Halt background services to improve performance.
This tip is one of our favorites because it always works. Running in the background of Windows are scores of services, small processes used by Windows and many Windows applications. The thing is, you don’t need all these services — especially for applications you never use — and many of them actually slow your PC down.
Win XP power users have long known that you can easily eke a little extra performance out of your PC by disabling services that are completely unnecessary or that don’t need to be running all the time. Here’s how it works.
1. Click Start > Run, type services.msc and click OK. This will bring up the Services management console. Click on the Extended tab at the bottom of this window; each background service running on your PC is listed here. Windows includes a fairly detailed description of each service; simply drag the Description column wider to read more of each description, or click on a service to see its full description in the left pane.
2. Double-click a service to bring up a window with several options. In the Startup Type area, you can set the service to run automatically in the background at all times so it’s ready whenever it’s needed, or you can tell it to run manually, which means you’ll have to go into this Services management console and re-enable it if an application needs it.
You can also completely disable the service. In general, you want to disable services tied to applications and/or features you don’t use or rarely use. You can find a great list of appropriate services to disable at the Elder Geek’s Services Guide For Windows XP.
If you’re logged onto the computer as the administrator, you can also pause the service (click the Pause button in the Service Status area just below the Startup Type area), then see how the computer behaves. Danger signs include crashes or other erratic behaviors in your applications, such as running slowly or getting stuck on a query prompt. Click Resume to start up the service again.
Tip 9: Increase available disk space by scaling back System Restore.
It’s not perfect, but Windows System Restore is a useful first step in recovering your PC or drive from a major system error. However, it can consume more than 10 percent of your total hard drive space.
If you find yourself desperate for an extra few gigabytes — particularly on secondary storage drives — there’s an easy way to reclaim data space by simply limiting the number of System Restore points Windows XP establishes. This one’s a snap and there’s no tangible increase of risk, which is why we love it.
1. Right-click on My Computer and select Properties > System Restore.
2. If you have just one hard drive, skip to step 3. Otherwise, select the drive on which you want to gain storage space and click the Settings button.
3. Adjust the slider to the left to use less disk space, and Win XP will reduce the number of System Restore points by the appropriate amount.
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