That’s why I’m starting this off with a personal thank you to the George S. May International Company - George S May Homepage for helping my family through some hard times.

I can remember when I was a little kid, my father was always home by dinner time. Then, something started to happen in later years, he started to spend more, and more time at work. Sometimes he didn’t even come home, and when my mother would ask where he was all night and he would say “fell asleep at my desk again.” This caused all kinds of drama, and she even accused him of cheating at one point.

Well truth was my father is a very stubborn and proud man, and he had a hard time telling us he was juggling finances, and barely keeping the business afloat.

Well all these years later it’s the same situation, and it’s really taken a toll on my dad’s health, and his relationship with us.

Until very recently I found out from my mother that things have changed quite a bit back home. Apparently dad is home every night by dinner time, and has even started taking my mother out on little “dates” again.

Astonished I asked her if dad sold the business. And to my surprise she said no. He reorganized the business. Well at this point I was completely clueless, and I had to talk to him about it and here is what he told me.

He said that he got a call from a sales person representing this business consulting firm in Chicago called George S May. They setup an appointment to meet with another sales person later that week. The sales person came in and did her presentation. It impressed my dad so he agreed to have someone fly out to analyze his business. They did a complete survey of his entire company for 350.00$ that showed him exactly where all his profits were going.

At this point they negotiated to bring out a few of their consultants with the promise that they could fix some overlooked problems in the company. Within a week they setup a chain of management, and gave everyone in the company added responsibility. They showed my parents much money we were loosing by using trucks that were almost as old as the business itself. They crunched the numbers on every little expenditure in the company. When I say everything I do mean everything. He sent me one of their reports, and I couldn’t believe how accurate it was. After reading it… It all made sense me. I mean we had noticed little things here and there but we never thought about it until now.

Anyways I just wanted to express my gratitude toward the George S May Company for saving my father so much money and time.

You may also want to check out the George S May Blog

- The devoted geek

Windows XP services explained

Windows XP is made up of a bunch of different applications running side by side. These applications are broken down into services, DLL files, and registry entries. Before I get a bunch emails, I know it’s far more complex than this but I am trying to keep it simple. Today we are going to focus in on some default XP services that are completely useless, or close to it. These services run in the background and take up memory, so disabling some of them will increase the amount of available memory in your system.

I’m going to focus on Windows XP service pack 2 but if you’re running service pack 3 this article can still help you. If you are running on service pack 1 I strongly suggest you upgrade as soon as possible. There are major security updates implemented in service pack 2 that you need to keep yourself safer online. Services have three different settings you can apply; Automatic - Manual - and Disabled.

How to open the Windows XP services control panel

1. Click on the start button then click on run.
2. In the text box type in “services.msc” without the quotes and push ok.

At this point a box should open and all the Windows XP services should be in a list. The image below is a cut out version of my services currently running. You’ll notice the red arrow is pointing to that status of the service. We will get into this more later

If you can’t find the run button in your system menu here is an alternative way to locate the services panel. Click on the start button and go to your control panel. Find the icon labeled administrative tools and double click on it. Then, find the icon labeled “services” and double click on it, and you should have a box open with all the services listed.

If you want to edit the properties of a service you can do so by double click on it and a window will open like the one pictured below. The yellow arrow gives you a description of the service. This is important because if you decide to turn off non-windows services you could be disabling something you need. In the image you can see my development coldfusion server service. If I turn it off I won’t be able to load coldfusion pages on my local development server.

The red arrow points to the box you will use to change the startup functions of the service. As I said earlier you have 3 choices. Automatic - Will turn the service on every time you turn the computer on. Manual - Will turn the service on whenever a program needs it. Although this doesn’t always work the way it’s supposed to. Disabled - Means exactly what it says. The service is disabled and cannot be turned back on until you change this.

The blue arrow (pictured above) points to the okay button at the bottom of the dialogue box. You’ll need to click this or the apply button to set your changes in place. If you just close the box nothing will be changed.

Computer Browser Service

Windows Description: “Maintains an updated list of computers on the network and supplies this list to computers designated as browsers.”

A better explanation: This is used in domain environments. In other words if you’re running a simple home network you do not need it. If you disable it you can still share files, and browse your network computers.

Distributed Link Tracking Client Service

Windows Description: “Maintains links between NTFS files within a computer or across computers in a network domain.”

A better explanation: This sounds like something you really need but chances are you don’t. Basically if you create files on one computer, and then put shortcuts to those files on another computer, and then move the original files around you’ll need this. But, I’ve got multiple PC’s on my home network, and I’ve never needed it, so I doubt you ever will. Plus this does not work on FAT32 systems. But if you’re stupid enough to be running on a FAT32 system go ahead and keep this enabled.

Error Reporting Service

Windows Description: “Allows error reporting for services and applictions running in non-standard environments.”

A better explanation: This service sends error reports to Microsoft over your internet connection. Um yeah disable this without a second thought.

Help and Support

Windows Explanation: “Enables Help and Support Center to run on this computer.”

A better explanation: Do you use the windows help system often? I didn’t think so. Besides most people just use Google to search for help articles. Go ahead and disable this.

Indexing Service

Windows explanation: “Indexes contents and properties of files on local and remote computers; provides rapid access to files through flexible querying language.”

A better explanation: This service really slows your computer down. It is somewhat useful in a crappy way. The index service keeps a small list of your files on your computer so your windows searches are faster. However, I find that I would rather wait a few minutes to complete a search than keep this running. There are other options available to you as well such as Google Desktop. I would recommended disabling this but it’s up to you.

Net Logon

Windows Explanation: “Supports pass-through authentication of account logon events for computers in a domain.”

A better explanation: If you’re not running on a domain disable this. If you don’t know what a domain is then disable this.

NetMeeting Remote Desktop Sharing

Windows Explanation: “Enables an authorized user to access this computer remotely by using NetMeeting over a corporate intranet.”

A better explanation: If you happen to be one of the .0000002% (edited as the users of reddit pointed out i misplaced my decimal) of the population using NetMeeting then leave this on. Otherwise it’s a security risk. Do you really want to share your desktop and all your files with someone else? Disable this.

Network Location Awareness (NLA)

Windows Explanation: “Collects and stores network configuration and location information, and notifies applications when this information changes.”

A better explanation: Who would want this feature? Disable this piece of donkey crap. (edited - As the friendly users of reddit pointed out if your using windows firewall or ICS keep this enabled. I use a 3rd party firewall and a router so i have no use for it.)

Network Provisioning Service

Windows Explanation: “Manages XML configuration files on a domain basis for automatic network provisioning.”

A better explanation: If you are not on a corporate network with a domain you don’t need it. Disable it.

Performance Logs and Alerts

Windows Explanation: “Collects performance data from local or remote computers based on preconfigured schedule parameters, then writes the data to a log or triggers an alert.”

A better explanation: Some people believe this is a waste for home users. However, I personally use it on my own machine, and when I’m fixing other peoples personal computers.

QoS RSVP

Windows Explanation: “Provides network signaling and local traffic control setup functionality for QoS-aware programs and control applets.”

A better explanation: This is supposed to balance the load of bandwidth to certain applications. But it’s actually a waste of memory. You can feel comfortable disabling this.

Remote Desktop Help Session Manager

Windows Explanation: “Manages and controls Remote Assistance.”

A better explanation: I actually use this service at home because I have a few machines connected to my network. I like the option of logging into them remotely. However, I don’t know many average users taking advantage of this service so if you don’t use it disable it.

Remote Registry

Windows Explanation: “Enables remote users to modify registry settings on this computer.”

A better explanation: So this allows remote users to modify your registry. Why in the hell would you want this running? Go ahead and disable it.

Secondary Logon

Windows Explanation: “Enables starting processes under alternate credentials.”

A better explanation: I use service on various computers depending on the setup. When onto a computer without administrative access, you can use this service to give you temporary admin access for installing programs, and making changes. This is very useful if you have more than one user on the machine like children, etc… You can installing things without logging off by simply entering your username and password. If your running on a single administrator account then it’s useless and you can disable it.

Security Center

Windows Explanation: “Monitors system security settings and configurations.”

A better explanation: All this does is monitor certain aspects of your computer like firewall, antivirus, and updates. It gives you annoying little pop up messages telling this isn’t installed or that has been updated. I can’t stand these pop up and I always disable this service. It doesn’t add any protection it just informs you that you’re missing it. Install firewall, and an antivirus, and you don’t need this, or have to worry about it.

Smart Card

Windows Explanation: “Manages access to smart cards read by this computer.”

A better explanation: If you’re not using smart cards on your system go ahead and disable it. For an explanation of what a smart card is check this Wikipedia link.

SSDP Discovery Service

Windows Explanation: “Enables discovery of UPnP devices on your home network.”

A better explanation: This is not the same as plug and play. I personally do not use an UPnP device on my network, and I’ve never met a home user that does either. If you’re not using it disable it. If external devices on your network fail re-enable it.

Universal Plug and Play Device Host

Windows Explanation: “Provides support to host Universal Plug and Play devices.”

A better Explanation: This works alongside the SSDP Service. If your not using UPnP devices disable this service as well.

System Restore Service

Windows Explanation: “Performs system restore functions.”

A better explanation: This service allows you to make restore points on your windows machine if you need to go back and restore it to an earlier date. I personally make imaged backups of my machine so I don’t use it. However, I usually leave this alone on average computer systems in case they need it in the future. Disabling it won’t hurt but this one is up to you.

TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper

Windows Explanation: “Enables support for NetBIOS over TCP/IP (NetBT) service and NetBIOS name resolution.”

A better Explanation: This is an outdated barely used service. I’ve haven’t seen NetBIOS over TCP/IP used in the last seven years. Go ahead and confidently disable this service.

Uninterruptible Power Supply

Windows Explanation: “Manages an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) connected to the computer.”

A better Explanation: Okay I have never ever met a home user running and UPS. I happened to have one because I got it for free. You can disable this with any negative effects.

If you enjoyed this you might also like my article on How to deal with the information technology department. ]]> http://www.devotedgeek.com/the-ultimate-guide-to-tweaking-useless-windows-xp-services/feed/ http://www.devotedgeek.com/the-ultimate-guide-to-tweaking-useless-windows-xp-services/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DevotedGeek/~3/yGE2NPwCCVk/ http://www.devotedgeek.com/ccleaner-software-review/#comments Fri, 23 Jan 2009 06:46:28 +0000 admin http://www.devotedgeek.com/?p=32 CCleaner is a freeware program that deletes internet history and cleans up your computer by removing unused files. It also has a registry cleaner with a backup option that is actually safe to use. There are lots of other programs out there that can do this but, most of them have problems. A lot of them contain spyware, and adware, that will actually spy on you with the added benefit of slowing your computer down to a crawl. Some other programs out there are clean but you need to be careful with registry cleaners because if you delete something you need you’ll be calling someone like me. I can’t complain, even though they are a nuisance they do provide a lot of business as small side jobs.

Cleaning up your computer system with CCleaner

Download Vista Drive Icon from Source Forge

So you’ve noticed your my computer, my documents, or my networks places icon has disappeared from your desktop. There is an easy way to get them back in a few short steps.

1. Right click anywhere on your desktop and select properties from the drop down list.

2. Look at the top of the window that just opened and locate the desktop tab and click on it.

3. Locate the button near the lower left corner of the window that says “customize,” and click on it.

4. You’ll notice 3 checks boxes. One for my computer, my documents, and network places.

5. Put a check mark next to the icons you wish to appear on the desktop and hit the ok button on the bottom of the window.

If all of your desktop icons are missing

- Right click on the Desktop, select Arrange Icons By, then select Show Desktop Icons.