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Experienced users are well aware that you can improve the performance of all versions of Windows by shutting down non essential Windows services. Indeed whole web sites such as Black Viper (http://www.blackviper.com/) are dedicated to the subject.
Of all the versions of Windows, Vista shows the greatest gain from shutting down non essential services. That because it has so many er, non essential components. OK then, so many useless components.
Unfortunately shutting down services is not a task for the faint hearted. First it's hard to work out what services you don't need. Secondly it's quite a fiddly job to actually shut them down and finally and most importantly, things can go wrong like when you discover that one of your favorite programs actually uses one of those "non essential" services.
Vista Services Optimizer is a nifty free utility that let you shut down unneeded services without the pain. There are several features about it that I really like:
1. It has an automatic TuneUp option that allows inexperienced users to shut down useless services. Furthermore it does this is a smart way. Rather than just taking a best guess what users don't need it asks simple plain English questions about what you do on your computer before it decides what you don't need.
2. Advanced users have plenty of options to fine tune their needs including the ability to create multiple service profiles.
3. It has smart Rescue Center that allows you to restart your shut down services should something go wrong.
On my tests it ran fine and after a bit of manual tweaking I realized some significant performance gains on my Vista PC. The only downside, apart from the usual risk of stopping a service that was actually needed, was the fact that the product requires the .NET 3 framework to be installed on your PC. Still, many modern Vista systems come with that pre-installed.
There is much to like here and if you use Vista I suggest you give it a whirl. However just to be extra careful I suggest you create a full systen backup or create a system checkpoint before you start, in case you have a disaster. Sure Vista Services Optimizer has its own recovery mechanism but in my books, two backup recovery options are better than one.
http://smartpcutilities.bravehost.com/
Download is 1.85MB, .NET 3 required, works with Vista 32 and 64 bit.
Gizmo
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WOT, a Firefox browser add on for online safety, has blocked this site as it states it has a poor reputation. in addition a number of googled websites have said the same. No offense guys but i rather choose the more popular softwares as a better option. Ryan.
Does it work with Windows 7 ?
tweekhound.com has been my fav for both xp and vista.
I thought that this program was fine when I reviewd it for my site a while back. Older versions did used to crash on my setup but recent releases are okay.
Other programs are available that do this sort of thing but this seems to be the easiest and best in my opinion.
As with other tweaking programs....Remember to backup your settings (or remember them) and test the functionality of programs / hardware after removing services. My review is here:
http://www.jonnysblog.com/2009/02/09/vista-services-optimizer-remove-unn...
Hope this helps
Jonny
In issue 107 of PC Utilities magazine on page 42, Vista Services Optimizer was given 4 out of 5 stars - no Recommended rating, no Editor's Choice rating, no PC Utilities Finest rating. (The list of possible ratings scores are on page 29.) So I'm still a bit unsure about trying it out. But I do have to say, that I have had at least a 90% success rate of using the TOP programs recommended here at Gizmo's. But I think I'll wait until they rate it against other similar programs. (If I've missed that comparison article though, please let me know.)
I was anxious to give this a try but, I can't get it to work on my PC. As soon as I get to the initializing graphical interface screen, I get an error message saying "vista optimizer has stopped working" Problem event name CLR20r3. I uninstalled it and redownloaded and re installed, but still get the same error message. Maybe it has something to do with the tweaks I applied using Totalideas Tweak VI. Any suggestions?
Does this work with 64 bit vista
did you actually read the story?
As the article says, this works with Vista x64. I was a beta tester for these guys and found a few glitches that they fixed in less than a day. Impressive turnaround for beta testing IMO, and I have been a beta tester for several different apps.
For anyone using XP:
http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/registry.htm
Avoid like the plague if you have already tweaked your services. I tried it and immediately had problems on rebooting. So I tried the restore feature, choosing the option to supposedly undo only what VSO had done. Unfortunately, it instead used the restore to default service settings option. Don't know whether this is a bug or not, but after spending nearly an hour manually restoring my services to how I like them I can't be bothered to waste any more time on testing and VSO has been consigned to the bin of programs to be avoided if you know what you are doing. Saying that, it might be of use to people who have never and won't ever tweak their services manually. I.e. their system is already at the default setting so if anything does go wrong, VSO will restore them back to their usual default setting.
I had the opposite. I alredy optimized my services using the black Viper suggestions but vso suggested I shut down two more services and you know what my machine now runs faster!
Simon
Hello Gizmo,
Do you know of such a program for Windows XP that you may recommend? Thanks!
If you disable the tablet pc input service, the Snipping tool in Vista will disappear.
Re-enabling tablet pc input service will bring it back.
That's really interesting rhiannon. I have a HP9500 series and like many people run with vista and service pak 1 on and about 2 months ago I did an over-haul on my "services" and got rid of a ton of stuff that I didn't need. Or rather I should say, I disabled or set to manual many services that weren't needed and tablet pc being one of them. My snipping tool which I love and use extensively I never lost. So after reading your comment and just for laughs and grins, I disabled/enabled tablet pc in services just to see what would happen and walla...it's still there. So just as an observation I find it interesting how computers differ from one another greatly depending how the owner has set it up and configured it for his personal use.
I did some experimenting and had the same results, then I started wondering if SP1 fixed it - but poking around a bit reveals that the snipping tool will disappear if you are in Control Panel > Programs & Features > Turn Windows Feature On or Off.
Unchecking "Tablet PC Optional Components" is the culprit.
Luckily its easy to re-enable too.
I love the snipping tool as well, though why the snipping tool is connected to tablet pc items is a mystery. Maybe it makes sense to the programmers.
Thanks for that Rhiannon.
This is a typical example of the unintended consequences of terminating particular services. The good news is that the services can easily be restarted if a problem occurs.
Gizmo
I learned that little tidbit from experience, though I would never have guessed that the Snipping tool had anything to do with the tablet pc input.
A nice feature of the Vista Services Optimizer is that it asks you if you have the pen part of a tablet. If you don't, it leaves the tablet input service running so you still have the Snipping tool.
Very good program, use it more then one month and can tell that it noticably optimized perfomance of my Vista 32 bit laptop,now it is "flying", though I was sceptical at the beginning whether to try this program from a "not well-known" developer or not.
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