Services--Manual vs. Disabled

[jmreinwald]

I have XP Home, and I found a decent site explaining what the typical services are and what they really do. I decided to disable a few of mine--for example, I have a standalone machine, so I did not need Upload Manager. To be on the safe side, for ones I was not so sure about, I left those in Manual.

I have a question about the memory usage with these services. Obviously, if a service is Disabled, that's the end of it. If it is Manual, then software that needs it will (presumably) start it up. Does Windows go ahead and allocate the necessary memory to a Manual service at boot up, or only when it is started? Then, after the service is no longer needed, does it shed that memory or keep it?

Thanks!
Joe

 

[bullhlms]

Joe,

I'm no expert. I've been fiddling with services for about a month, and it appears that some in "manual" will start when needed, and some won't. They never appear to return memory unless manually stopped in task manager. You can run it (if you're not) with cont+alt+delete, to watch things. I've put it into my startup group. Visit blackviper.com if you haven't.
Bill

 

[butchrecon]

The service will only aquire memory for use when it is started. So it does not matter if you set it to manual or disable, no memory is taken until it is started. You should never set a service to disable if there is a chance you or the system may need it at some point. When the service is stopped then any memory it used is then released. James Collins
Field Service Engineer
A+, MCP

email: butchrecon@skyenet.net

Please let us (Tek-tips members) know if the solutions we provide are helpful to you. Not only do they help you but they may help others.

 

[jmreinwald]

Thanks fellas. I realize many of the services I altered probably will not do me a bit of good on a day-to-day basis anyway, but I'm a fanatic when it comes to "house keeping" on my pc... I was very patient with rebooting after making changes, and have seen no ill side effects--yet.

Coincidentally enough, the website I was referring to was blackviper.com. The descriptions he gave were very helpful--however, sometimes the Windows "description" phrased something slightly different, or at least different enough to make me not wanna disable it...

Thanks again!
Joe

 

[butchrecon]

No problem glad to be of help. James Collins
Field Service Engineer
A+, MCP

email: butchrecon@skyenet.net

Please let us (Tek-tips members) know if the solutions we provide are helpful to you. Not only do they help you but they may help others.

 

[bullhlms]

Joe,
Butchrecon is correct about memory only being used while a service runs. Most that I've observed did not stop when no longer needed. Be careful not to disable a service which another (necessary service) depends on. I hope we were helpful.
Bill