Which services to disable in Windows 8?

A quick update:

I was glad to see that it´s indeed possible to shutdown the horrible Task Scheduler, without breaking anything.

However, you do have to be careful with disabling services, because I somehow managed to break all of my USB ports. Luckily my PS/2-keyboard and "Windows System Restore" saved me.

 

Task Scheduler is one of my favorite apps. I run 5 to 10 scheduled tasks daily. All of my image backups are scheduled.

 

I can not disable Task Scheduler, because it also disables System Events Broker and when that one was disabled standalone, it caused BSOD.
I tried to disable Windows Event Log and COM+ Event System, PC got noticeably faster without all the logging, but Steam kept loosing connection.
I also enabled Network Store Interface, because it affects autoupdating of the browser and extensions, browser synchronization and a few other things.

Spoiler: So far I have disabled only those:

AMD External Events Utility
AMD FUEL Service
Application Layer Gateway Service
AppX Deployment Service (AppXSVC)
Base Filtering Engine
BitLocker Drive Encryption Service
DHCP Client
Diagnostic Policy Service
Diagnostic Service Host
Distributed Link Tracking Client
Distributed Transaction Coordinator
DNS Client
Encrypting File System (EFS)
Function Discovery Provider Host
Function Discovery Resource Publication
IKE and AuthIP IPsec Keying Modules
Internet Connection Sharing (ICS)
IP Helper
IPsec Policy Agent
Microsoft Keyboard Filter
Net.Tcp Port Sharing Service
Network Connection Broker
Network Connections
Network Location Awareness
Offline Files
Portable Device Enumerator Service
Print Spooler
Program Compatibility Assistant Service
Remote Desktop Services
Remote Registry
Routing and Remote Access
Secure Socket Tunneling Protocol Service
Security Accounts Manager
Security Center
Server
Shell Hardware Detection
Smart Card
SSDP Discovery
Superfetch
TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper
Time Broker
WebClient
Windows Connection Manager
Windows Defender Network Inspection Service
Windows Defender Service
Windows Error Reporting Service
Windows Firewall
Windows Font Cache Service
Windows Image Acquisition (WIA)
Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service
Windows Remote Management (WS-Management)
Windows Search
Windows Store Service (WSService)
Windows Time
WinHTTP Web Proxy Auto-Discovery Service
Wise Boot Assistant
Workstation

 

Use this Services lookup before you brick your system.

Perhaps if you prioritized security over speed, you wouldn't be asking these questions - but that's just me.

 

Yes if it has a purpose then it´s fine, but to me it´s garbage, I noticed that some apps run tasks without my approval, and it even woke up my PC one time.

Weird I didn´t notice any problems. Did you also try to disable "Windows Management Instrumentation"? On XP it didn´t cause any problems.

I´m sorry but disabling unneeded services can actually boost system security, because a lot of services can be abused by zero day exploits.

 

on win7 (probably still relevant to win.

I disable windows search as I find the indexiing pointless needless I/o.
I disable remote registry if its enabled.
I disable the media sharing service.

and I think that's about it.

disabling windows time service as that article suggests is a bad idea. your clock will go out of sync.

 

First of all default time sync does not work anyway (time.windows.com) and I check time occasionally to adjust my watches anyway, so nevermind. Using http://time.is

 

yes default fails but it can be changed

 

This thread is a perfect example of painting with too broad a brush, and why not to. "Personally", I notice a definite correlation between how much RAM is freed up and performance. Back when I had only 512 megs of it on XP and a slow Celeron CPU, and now that I have the full 3.25 gigs a 32-bit OS will address and a Core 2 Duo @ 2.83 ghz. I also notice a huge difference when disabling a bunch of services, and trimming XP down period everywhere I can. But the key words there were "a bunch of services". A bunch of tweaks period, it requires. Disabling a few won't cut it, and the problem with post-XP OS's is you simply cannot do this, whether you want to or not. You can't test the theory because most of those services are now required for proper functionality of the OS. They've become bloated.

Not to mention making your computer faster isn't the only reason to do it. It also disables a bunch of attack surface (i.e. more secure). Heck, my box is even quieter after applying the tweaks, which must also be better on my hardware. So it's a no brainer and no contest for me personally. Again... "personally".

But I don't go around telling other people to follow my example because I really this isn't a 1 size fits all thing. I think it's irresponsible. It could end up bricking someone elses box, or make things they want to work not work. For instance I cannot disable my pagefile and have "NO problems". Some of the emulators I have on my box would be glitchy, and some wouldn't work at all and possibly freeze my computer... make me have to re-image it.

 

@ luciddream

Yes I agree with you, I just hate all those services running in the background that you don´t even need in the first place. M$ should stop with this nonsense. But you really need to know what you´re doing. I somehow managed to break volume control and all of my USB ports during services tweaking.

 

Indeed, there is no universal guide, which can tell, which services can be disabled, it is always individual. Like I considered disabling NETBIOS service as completely safe, until once I did it remotely and my friend was unable to use internet afterwards, so I had to painstakingly explain to him, how to enable it again, since I could not do remotely anything. A safe way is to stop the service, see the dependencies, see if it breaks anything essential or if it starts itself again and so on, not just blindly disable dozens of services. Some consequences will rise up later. But it can really speed up the overall performance (subjective of course) along with an increased security.

 

I'm not aware of any documentation that details stopping or disabling services in order to avoid Windows exploits.

There are some rare instances where third party introduced services are disabled at the Services or MSCONFIG level in order to prevent the software from "calling home".

Check with the folks at MS Answers, if in doubt.
They would have an affirmative answer for you based on Microsoft engineers.

 

Microsoft itself recommends it in Windows Updates. I could have only guess the number of exploits, that it is applicable to, but that depends on OS.
One of the workarounds is always to disable the specific Windows service, since you do not need to patch something, that is not running obviously.

Randomly picked: Disable the Print Spooler service - https://technet.microsoft.com/library/security/ms13-001

The point is, you are protected without updates and even against unknown exploits, so why to keep running something vulnerable, that you do not need?

 

which is a non issue in a typical home where all ports are closed.

and what happens if someone wants to print with that service disabled?

 

There seems to be a but of FUD ongoing here, disable Print Spooler Carry on ...

 

Last time I checked - generally everyone has a Printer, disabling this service would completely cripple your ability to print.

 

I´m not sure how real the threat is on modern systems like Win 7/8, but in theory it CAN be a security risk.

Here an example:

http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/19409/discuss
http://www.symantec.com/security_response/writeup.jsp?docid=2006-081312-3302-99

BTW, I found some other sites:

http://www.7tutorials.com/which-windows-services-are-safe-disable-when
http://tweakhound.com/windows7/tweaking/8.html

 

Perhaps not exploits specifically, but any other type of vulnerability. Many of those services (in XP anyway) have been linked to vulnerabilities in the past. They generally patch them before exploits come about, but who's to say another won't crop up in the future? This is especially true of those still running XP now past it's EOL... another thing I do personally but don't go recommending to others. Some of the services were so blatantly dangerous that even 3 letter agencies recommended disabling them (like SSDP Discovery Service). I remember when NASA was hacked the legend that pulled it off said had they simply disabled their Remote Registry services, it would've thwarted his plans.

And now I see that this past MS patch day included a patch to the kernel that rendered many computers inoperable, caught in a reboot and/or BSOD loop. Many of these things are worse than exploits/malware. But people that disable Windows Automatic Updating could have avoided it by not getting the updates right away and reading about it first, then waiting until they were convinced all was good until applying the (now fixed) patch. And this is hardly the first time this has happened.

No router is going to protect you from these sorts of things. It's about a lot more than just open ports here. Also, as I mentioned, it can even make your machine quieter, which makes it easier on your hardware. But again this is all really applies to XP the most, not not OS's made since. You have to look at it on a case by case basis, and not paint with a broad brush.

 

There were some Services in Windows XP that required disabling as there were open security holes.

This is not the case for Windows 7, despite all the buzz of disabling a myriad of services as discussed in this thread. Remember that disabling the wrong service can render your PC unbootable.

 

Another thing that I noticed is that a lot of apps won´t "autostart" on Windows 8. On Win XP I have never seen this problem. I suspect that it´s caused by the ridiculous amount of services and drivers that need to get loaded by Win 8. Other apps simply don´t get a chance. Another thing why M$ needs to be ashamed.

 

I wouldn't be too sure about that. There are tons of critical security patches every month for Win7, and I'm sure some of them involve patching vulnerabilities in services. But when you look at the notes they are just very vague, like: "This addresses a critical vulnerability in Windows 7 which could allow a remote user to gain control of your system and... blah blah blah".

Plus it's still a young OS in comparison to XP. Give it some time and it's bound to compile it's own extensive list of vulnerabilities. Given the larger attack surface, probably even eclipse it when all is said and done.

 

BTW, I don't know how it happened, but I have managed to break the Task Scheduler. At first I could not disable it, even with admin rights I got "access denied". But after some tweaking and the installation of SpyShelter, it does not autostart anymore (not sure what caused it), but Win 8 still seems to run just fine.

 

Another service you shouldn't disable at least on Win7x64 is Application Experience. If you disabled it, sometimes exe file can't be deleted. I, and people having same experience, still can't figure out what is the condition it occurs.

I don't know what you actually did but on Windows everything can be deleted or disabled when you have admin right. If you get access denied, probably it means you have to change its ACE. Sometimes you even have to change owner, but then you can do everything. It's not always the case on Linux though.

I don't know if you have interest, but most Japanese won't be able to tell your HN means grey wolf unless he made good reasoning from your avatar. In fact, I thought you name means "landlady in a continent". I have a suggestion, if you have an interest please PM me.

 

To be honest, I don't feel like playing with ACE, I have a feeling I might break things.

And to clarify, last year I bought 3 desktops, on the first 2, I could disable Task Scheduler, but on my current on, I get access denied. This also happens with a couple of other services, like Group Policy, Software Protection and Windows Defender, seems like they are protected.

However, after some tweaking, Task Scheduler refuses to start even though its startup type is "Automatic". So looks like something broke it, and this is actually what I wanted, because I hate it, it's of no use to me. Like I said, Win 8 still runs just fine.