Services in XP Pro

[phill9800]

I was just wondering whether or not the amount of services that the PC loads when XP (or whatever OS boots up) slows down a PC?

I have 23 processes going on at the moment with a few programs loaded on my server and I'm just wondering if getting rid of the ones that I wont be using will make a difference to the way it performs?

Also I have noticed that I have a service called svchost and its under system for the user name (in Windows Task Manager) What does it do?

Im just looking for ways to try and optimize the server as its so low powered aways!! I figure every little helps :)

Thanks for the replies in advance guys :)

[pman]

Generally the more startup items , the slower the computer will start, but 23 is quite low. Ive got 33 going at the mo.

svhost is a windows process that can run multiple times at the same time and runs things like your sound driver and graphics etc..

Hope it helps :p

[phill9800]

Generally the more startup items , the slower the computer will start, but 23 is quite low. Ive got 33 going at the mo.

svhost is a windows process that can run multiple times at the same time and runs things like your sound driver and graphics etc..

Hope it helps :p

so is it something that i can get rid of or not? its taking away my cpu power!! and i dont have much with a VIA 533Mhz CPU!!!

I think a friend said he had over 50!! I was shocked.. I dont know how he manages... mine you, he says he likes AOL!!! I never understood that tho.. Heres a screen shot..

http://mywebpage.netscape.com/physicalphill/my+processes.JPG

Is there anything more I can get rid of to hopefully speed it up?

[khilladi]

http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm here is a pretty good guide :)

[pman]

well ive got 32 on the go at the mo, no probs.

whats that ud_ligfit_Release.exe process. That's what is eatin up your cpu usage. End the process and you should see a difference

[phill9800]

whats that ud_ligfit_Release.exe process. That's what is eatin up your cpu usage. End the process and you should see a difference

Thats my cancer research program, thats on regardless and its in the 'background' so if something more important comes along, it gets put down out of the way.. its on a very low priorty i think..

[lazyrunner50]

Yeah, you can't always trust programs like that to slow down though. My mom had SETI@home (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Inteligence...a program that downloads data transmitted from satellites and analyzes it) running on her machine, and then tried to work with some photos that she had just gotten off her camera. Well, she has a 1.9 Ghz Pentium with 512mb Ram and the thing slowed to a crawl. After killing SETI@home, she was able to work with the photos. Not saying that you shouldn't have that program running (it is a good cause after all), but if you are worried about running out of resources, perhaps you should put it on a different machine.

[phill9800]

This one is going to be on all the time as just a FTP server (hence the 3x200gig drives!!! :D) and so I really aint to bothered as such, Im just wondering if there are any ways I can tweak it up some more.. To be honest the UD Agent program doesnt really slow the machine down like that as like I said it runs on a very low proity so I dont notice it that much :) Besides, I think there is a little difference between a P4 @ 1.9GHz to a VIA 533MHz CPU!! :D

[lazyrunner50]

See, that's my point....even with 1.9 Ghz Pentium, the other programs were slowed to a crawl (so with a 533 Mhz computer it would slow down even more). Also, I meant that even with SETI@home assigned as a low priority program, it still took up a ton of resources either because there was something wrong with the way the priority was assigned or because the program did not deem it necessary to release as many resources as possible. The way to tell is to do something processor intensive and monitor the processes to see if the cancer program releases the resources in response to your actions. In other words, it does not really matter if you have assigned it the lowest priority in the world if it doesn't release resources in response to your actions!

[Rudegar]

http://www.tweak3d.net/
got bunch both which services you need as a normal user and other tweaks

[phill9800]

I will have a look, thanks Rudegar.. :)

[phill9800]

See, that's my point....even with 1.9 Ghz Pentium, the other programs were slowed to a crawl (so with a 533 Mhz computer it would slow down even more). Also, I meant that even with SETI@home assigned as a low priority program, it still took up a ton of resources either because there was something wrong with the way the priority was assigned or because the program did not deem it necessary to release as many resources as possible. The way to tell is to do something processor intensive and monitor the processes to see if the cancer program releases the resources in response to your actions. In other words, it does not really matter if you have assigned it the lowest priority in the world if it doesn't release resources in response to your actions!

I see your point but im unsure your seeing mine. UD Agent runs fine in the back ground and i dont get lag from using it. The one thing i do want to do is to get rid of the c**p that Windows has otherwise to free up other things as well.
Im not meaning to be rude or saying your not got a clue, but I find cancer research rather important to me after my nan dieing from it. Even on a 533Mhz CPU its running. Id run it on a lot more if i could, i really mean that.

Besides my cancer research program, is there anything else i could get rid of?

[lazyrunner50]

Phil, if you are not noticing a lag from the program, fine...it is doing what it should! :) However, I was drawing my conclusions from the information you provided, namely the screenshot of the processes you had running. Obviously, if there is a process that is taking up 85% of the processor load (as that process is in the screenshot), it is using a lot of resources. Having said that, I do not know how this process acts when other processes with higher priority start running. If it releases control of the processor as it should, then it is doing it's job. Otherwise, it is hogging resources that could be used elsewhere.

Do not take this the wrong way, I also believe this program is important (my dad just got over cancer a little while ago)...as I said earlier:
Not saying that you shouldn't have that program running (it is a good cause after all), but if you are worried about running out of resources, perhaps you should put it on a different machine.
I also believe it is important. . I am just going strictly off the facts as they have been given to me:<br>
1. There is a process that is using 85% of the processor power<br>
2. The machine is lagging<br>
3. There are no other processes that are taking up a significant amount of processing power (as indicated by the screenshot)<br>

So, I reiterate my previous statement: If you are worried about running out of resources, perhaps you should put it on a different machine. That way you will still be able to run the program, but you will free up the resources of your server

[phill9800]

To be honest the only thing Im using on the server is explorer to go online and Cerberus (my FTP cilent) that runs on it all the time... When I get my new rig up and running (anytime soon would be great!!) I will be using that a lot more than the server for obvous reasons...

Besides all that, it is really just going to sit there and do nothing but what its told :D I do appreaicate the help, honestly..

Oh if you would like to join up the fight for cancer (if your not already doing it) go to the link below:

http://www.grid.org/download/gold/download.htm

just click on the download button and off you will go :) My team name is Phills, so if you would like to join, just click on the link below also :)

http://www.grid.org/services/teams/teams.htm?mth=keyword_name&val=phills

If you click on my team name it should come up with join team, so just click on that and off you go :) It runs in the background, I dont notice it (the system is already slow! I was hoping to 'tweak' it a little..)

Just to finish off by saying thanks a million :) Hope your Dad keeps well :) All the best!