SLASHING SERVICES
We are, of course, working on a clean Windows install, but you probably aren’t. Disabling the core Windows services—those programs that run quietly in the background, supplying your PC with essential (and inessential) functions that don’t require a UI—isn’t necessarily recommended; Microsoft’s own suite has been honed over the years to be as efficient as possible, its contents sitting in the pagefile, barely ever touching system RAM. You could chop out most Windows services and never feel a difference on a modern PC, apart from the whole operating system crumbling around your ears. Thirdparty services, though, are a different story, and cutting them out means you’re likely to see a real change, which (usually) will only impact that app’s time to initial launch.
First up, finding out what’s running. The Task Manager is a good place to start. Switch to the Advanced view, and scroll down to see the entries prefixed with the words “service host.” These are all fired off via svchost.exe, so they’re categorized together. Some might contain more than one service, which you can discover by clicking the expand arrow on the left; and most, while not essential, are there to improve your Windows experience. A quick glance through the list in our clean install reveals Superfetch as the main culprit for RAM hogging—as it should be, given that it’s the service that puts commonly accessed data into RAM, rather than spending ages reading it from the hard drive. Our biggest CPU sapper is the usefully named
“Local System,” which basically deals with Windows updates. But that’s the perfect target for now: We know there are no updates pending, so we can stop it.
Clumsily ending the task in Task Manager won’t do. Instead, type “services” into the search bar to open the services section of Windows’ Management Console. You won’t find “Local System” in the list, but you should find the two components we’re looking for: Windows Update, and the Update Orchestrator service. Right-click them, select “Stop,” and they’ll go away until your next boot. Those sanctions not harsh enough? Right-click, select “Properties,” and poke around the “General” tab. Change the “Startup type” to “Disabled,” and they won’t come back until you dig through the list and switch them back on again. Be warned, though: Unless Windows is happy to do without, this a stupid thing to do. Even more stupid (but similarly possible) would be to remove a Windows service altogether, although cutting out a third-party service (maybe even a piece of malware) is unlikely to sting too much. Run the Registry editor by typing “regedit” into the search bar, then dig down to “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/ SYSTEM/ CurrentControlSet/ Services.” Finding the particular service you want to kill can be tricky, but click around until you find it, then rename (or, ulp, delete) its key to get rid.