>10 services to turn off in MS Windows XP
>In this post I am going to write about the services that should be kept off in Windows XP for the better performance. Microsoft Windows XP comes with the various services turned on by the default. Each version of Microsoft Windows XP comes with new and updated services which are automatically turned on but if your computer are out-graded then it might give poor performance, and in that case you need to manually turn off different services in Microsoft Windows XP. Below I am going to write about the services, which are turned on and you may be surprised that these things are running on your desktop computer without your knowledge.
1. Internet Information Service (IIS): Microsoft’s Internet Information provides the Webserver capabilities for your computer. (see below how to turn off the service)
2. NetMeeting remote Desktop Sharing: The primarily VoIP and videoconferencing client for Microsoft Windows is known as NetMeeting. This service is only particularly necessary to remote desktop access so you can turn off this service too to increase the performance.
3. Remote Desktop Help Session Manager: This service is used by the Remote Assistance features which you can use to allow others remote access to the system to help you troubleshoot problems.
4. Remote Registry: The aptitudes provided by the Remote Registry service are fear-provoking to consider from a security perspective. They allow us (users) to edit the Windows Registry.
5. Routing and Remote Access: This service parcels a number of capabilities together, aptitudes that most system administrator would probably agree should be provided separately. It is very rare that any of them service should be necessary for a typical desktop system (computer) such as Microsoft Windows XP, but, so they can all conveniently be turned off a single service to fasten your system. Remote and Access provides the ability to use the system as a router and NAT device, as a dialup access gateway and a Virtual Private Network server.
6. Simple file sharing: When any computer system is not a part of a Microsoft Windows Domain then it is assumed by the default settings that any and all file system shares are meant to access universally. But in the real world, we should only want to provide share to a very specific and authorized users. As such, Simple File Sharing, which only provides blanket access to share without any exceptions which is not what we want to use for sharing file system resources. It is always active by default on both Microsoft Windows XP professional and Microsoft Windows XP Home editions. But unfortunately, this cannot be disabled on the Microsoft Windows XP Home editions. On Microsoft Windows XP Professional edition you can fortunately turn off this service to fasten your PC by: My Computer> Tools> Folder Options and then clicking the View tab, and unchecking the Use Simple File Sharing (recommended) check box in the Advanced settings panel.
7. SSDP Discovery Service: This is a service which is used to discover UPnP device on your network system, and is required for the Universal Play and Plug Device Host Service to operate. You can see below.
8. Telnet: This Telnet service is a very old fashioned mechanism for providing remote access to a computer system which is most commonly known for its use in the bad old days of security for a remote command shell access on UNIX servers system. If you are still using Telnet to remotely mange a UNIX system then it may be the ground for firing where an encrypted protocol such as SSH should be used instead.
9. Universal Plug and Play Device Host: After you have your “Plug and Play” devices installed on your computer system, it often that you will not need this service on your system again, and therefore turn off this service too for boosting your system.
10. Windows Messenger Service: This service is listed in the Services windows under the name of Messenger; the Windows Messenger Service provides “net send” and “Alert” functionality. It is much unrelated with the Windows Messenger instant messaging client and therefore it is not necessary to use the Windows Messenger IM network.
On your computer system these service may not be turned on or might be not installed, it depend on the version of operating system you have installed on your PC whether you are using XP Home or XP Professional, and from which vendor you got your computer and version of your OS.
With the only exception of Simple File Sharing which I have already mentioned above in Simple File Sharing point, all of the above service can be disabled from the same place. Simply click on the Start button then navigate to settings>> Control Panel>> Administrative Tools>> Service window. To disable any of the above service in the list, simply double click on the items in the window and change the startup type: setting. In general you should turn off these services for the security purpose to disabled state. When you are in doubt to whether you should turn off the given service or not, check on the Dependencies tab in the service’s settings dialog.
There are others many services which you may not need for your system. In that case you should research about this service and turn off service manually. In most case while your system is running others service may not be necessary and they can be disabled it to ensure that you actually do not need it running your system. Some of them are quite critical to the normal operation of your system, such as the Remote Procedure (RPC) service. Every services running but not used by your system may be the unnecessary security vulnerability. If the service is not important to the system simply turn it off.
