Non-internet Windows 7 DAW, which services should I keep running?

[JerGoertz]

Hey gang,

I'm optimizing my quad-core i5 Win-7 64-bit desktop for audio, and want to know which services I can disable without adversely effecting my puter's functionality/performance. It's strictly off the 'net, so I don't need any kind of networking capability.

Here's what I currently have enabled (it's pretty much the default):

(Sorry about the huge size and shitty graphical layout. )



Which services/startup items should I *keep*? I figure I'll end up disabling many/most of the services.

Thanks,
Jer

[planetearth]

I run as few as possible.

Here's a good place to start: http://www.blackviper.com/service-confi ... gurations/

Please read his information before you make the changes (especially "Do not use 'msconfig' to disable services, type 'services.msc' in the Run box instead"), and be sure to TEST every so often to make sure you're not inadvertently making things worse.

Good luck!

Steve

[JerGoertz]

Thanks planetearth (love your logo/avatar pic, BTW).

I didn't undertand the thing about not using msconfig. How is disabling a service there worse than using services.msc?

[planetearth]

Thanks planetearth (love your logo/avatar pic, BTW).

I didn't undertand the thing about not using msconfig. How is disabling a service there worse than using services.msc?

With services.msc, you can determine how you want the service to start--if you want it to start at all, that is. For example, you can set it to "manual", instead of disabling it altogether (which is what msconfig does). Some services may need to be started by another service, and if you disable them completely, you'll have other, potentially unforeseen and difficult-to-troubleshoot problems.

Steve

[devilnishy]

There are freeware tools such as "Toolwiz care" which have a games mode, this shuts down all non essential windows services and once mode is switched off it returns your system to the state it was in before it was implemented.
I'm not by any means saying his is the best software for gamers mode but it does list the services it wishes to shut down.
This may be a usefull starting point for those who are unsure of windows sevices and their functions.
I have often wondered why software developers have looked at this problem for gamers but not for music producers.

[Parduz]

I'd suggest to download the Sysinternal suite from the MS site (non-official, non-supported MS stuffs). In particular, the "autoruns.exe" (you can download the single exe also, but i'd keep the whole package anyway) allows to disable the launch command of almost everything while keeping the ability to roll back if needed (unless you delete the launch command instead of just unchecking it).
-- edit -- I meant to use Autoruns IN ADDITION to the standart service management. There's some stuffs which aren't service which are launched at boot/logon.

[UltraJv]

Tweaks can make Windows snappier but they don't do much else. I don't have any attall. Some programs require internet activation or rely on services for copy protection that arnt abvious. so Id be wary of changing things. When you remove services, you may in time get errors that don't make sense. Cubase relies on directx and Aero for instance. W7 works fine out of the box. Tweaks arnt needed for low latency audio either. Toolwiz care is a good idea as you can return to a known state easily. In short - no one can tell you what tweaks you can get away with, it depends on your software.

[dnekm]

I second both Black Viper and autoruns.... but be careful. You need to really know what something is and what it does before disabling it.....

[mkdr]

There's really no need for this.. There's really not that much to gain. And most of all you aren't getting ANY more processing power for your DAW with this. None. Zero. You only risk the stability of your system. Don't do it!

[chk071]

There's really no need for this.. There's really not that much to gain. And most of all you aren't getting ANY more processing power for your DAW with this. None. Zero. You only risk the stability of your system. Don't do it!

That's actually my experience too, even on older computers, which would have shown the impact. What i usually do is stop the remote services, because i don't need them, and word is that they could pose a security risk (which i'm not so sure of but anyway). There's sites on the internet which show which services are needed for what, and which ones can be deactivated without problems. But then again, there's not much to gain with it anyway.

[JerGoertz]

Well, I'm a little one the fence now about disabling stuff or not... I think I'll probably at least "give it a try" at some point and see how it goes.

Thanks to all who gave advice!

[losan]

Looking at the picture above it seems, that Win7 behaves better compared to my Vista system as which services
should run by default ( I think my naked Vista system had around 70 services running, which I brought down to around 30,
as I'm also strictly offline, plus some needed 3rd party services).

While I mostly agree with all here said (in regards to processing power), I actually experienced, that there might be
reasons to deactive certain services.

In my case I lately had a problem with random DPC spikes ( > 1ms), though I've done all the usuall DAW tweaks before,
also the driver for my RME interface was up to date. (I used Latency Checker and LatencyMon for Analyses).

LatencyMon first made me think it was related to some USB devices, but in the end I found, that disabling
the "Superfetch" service actually did the trick - no more DPC spikes.
It surely doesn't make Windows more snappy in this case (first time you run some application it will take a little longer to load),
but it also surely helped to improve the use of my system as a DAW, and it also did take away some stress from my harddrive (no more loading files into RAM for up to 10 - 15 minutes every time... !)
Please keep in mind, that I can't tell, if this service might have been improved under Win 7 though...

FYI,
Cheers

@ the OP:

I think there's not that much left to disable - being without a network you could disable
DHCP client, DNS Client, Base Filtering engine, IP-Helper, Server, Workstation, TCP/IP-NetBios Helper,
Windows Firewall, those starting with Network..., Windows Defender, Security Center, Windows Update
(though I once needed to activate this one to be able to install a driver for a hardware device).
You did also disabled your network device in the device manager allready, right... ?

If you don't need it you could also disable Windows search and Program Compatibility Assistant.

If you then have the need to update your system, you'll have to enable again "Windows Update",
"DHCP client" (and related to this also "Network Store Interface Service")

Hope it's of some use

[t3toooo]

Well, I'm a little one the fence now about disabling stuff or not... I think I'll probably at least "give it a try" at some point and see how it goes.

Thanks to all who gave advice!

Touching the services since Windows 7 is like opening a can of worms.
The Windows services descriptions are hilarious and i think even many people writing about them hardly know what they are actually doing (in depth).

The services depending on each other like nothing else,if you disable one you might wonder why something else gets quirky that seemed not to be related to the service that you had adjusted,lol,yeah i had this.
Also it is much harder to find out if there is a driver issue a bug or a hardware error,if there is a issue.

The only thing i found to set to automatic instead of manual was the "windows driver foundation" service because i got 2 entries in the event viewer which i observe regularly,not that they influenced the performance in any way,however.

I think the event viewer is the best for diagnosis and if there is a "missing cd rom" entry for example it is of course ignorable.

In the Bios i would set the entry to high performance though (probably in Windows too).

[planetearth]

Well, I'm a little one the fence now about disabling stuff or not... I think I'll probably at least "give it a try" at some point and see how it goes.

Thanks to all who gave advice!

As a computer consultant, this is what I do to my work machine, my DAW, and for any client who wants a computer that loads quicker and is more stable. I don't go to an extreme with these settings, but I have shaved several seconds off the boot time (in some cases, over a minute before the machine "settles down" after loading and is ready for work), and I have also freed up much-needed RAM and CPU cycles.

If you err on the side of caution, you should be fine. As I said before, test often. If you notice a problem after turning off a few services and rebooting, then turn them back on. It's really not that difficult.

Good luck!

[legendCNCD]

No need to disable anything in 99,9999% of cases.