While not all
Services are essential for all users, only the computer's main user can determine which are required to have the system behave as he/she wants.
Changing
Services settings without completely understanding the consequences can often result in fairly serious difficulties. Before modifying
Services (
services.msc) I suggest a through exploration of
The Elder Geek:
Services Guide for Windows XP
and Black Viper:
Windows XP x86 (32-bit) Service Pack 3 Service Configurations by Black Viper
(BV SP2:
Windows XP x86 (32-bit) Service Pack 2 Service Configurations by Black Viper)
The Elder Geek is a bit more conservative, Black Viper more aggressive.
It is often suggested to set all
Services to default before making changes, and then to make them one-at-a-time so as to understand "What happened?"
When a Service is
disabled, it simply will not run, and any system functions that depend on it will not work either. When a Service is set to
manual, the system can start it if required but it will not auto-start with Windows and run continuously. This makes
manual the preferred setting for those
Services which a user wants to control.
Automatic Services are those which Windows will start by itself at each boot anyway. Setting them to
Automatic reduces the burden on the system at boot and ensures that the Service is running when needed. In fact, some
Services require an automatic setting to function properly- Automatic Updates for example.
Above mentioned Process Explorer is an essential tool in
Services management, allowing a full description of the
Services hosted by each instance of svchost.
