STOP UNWANTED XP SERVICES

Now that you have all of the older programs you want to run working properly
with Windows XP, it’s time to take a look at some things that run in the
background, likely without your knowledge. These are called services, and
they are programs too. Unwanted or unnecessary services can be stopped,
started, paused, or resumed by the administrator of the computer (a person
with administrator rights). Services can also be configured to run automatically
or manually, or they can be completely disabled. If you have Windows XP
Professional, you can view all services from the Services console, which
you open by clicking Start | All Programs | Administrative Tools | Services.

If you have Windows XP Home, you’ll have to click Start | Search, type in
Administrative Tools, click Search, and open the folder from there. (In Windows
XP Home, Administrative Tools are not listed on the All Programs list.) The
Services window is shown in the below Figure.



Not all of these services are necessary, and you can disable several of them,
but you shouldn’t just go randomly mucking about disabling a service because
you don’t like its name or don’t believe it’s really needed. Most services
are needed. However, there are a few you can disable, and in doing so, you can
decrease the load the computer must bear just to run.

Disable Automatic Updates

Disable or stop Automatic Updates to increase resources for high performance
tasks.

Automatic Updates are Windows XP’s way of keeping your computer upto-
date, in the background, by automatically checking for, downloading, and
even installing updates that Microsoft releases. It’s best to leave this setting on
Automatic, but if you want to increase performance for a computer used for
gaming or other high-performance needs, you can disable (or stop) Automatic
Updates.
To disable Automatic Updates:
1.Click the Start Menu, in settings Go to Control Panel.
2. In the Control panel, double-click Security center.
3. To stop the service temporarily, click on Turn off Automatic Updates.
4. Click OK.
If you have multiple profiles created, for instance a gaming profile,
you can disable services for that specific profile only. If you do use your
computer for gaming, you’ll probably want to disable as many services as
possible for the best performance possible.

To disable a service for a specific hardware profile, click the tab
in Step 3, select the profile to apply the change to, and click Disable. This
option is shown in the following Figure.