Tips and Tweaks

Temporarily stopping background services for Gaming

I created one batch file to stop services before I play, and one to restart them afterwards. The idea is to stop non-essential background services to reduce system noise and the amount of ram used by normal system processes during game play. The batch files are dirt easy to modify so I don't think they need any explanation.

An example STOP.BAT file:
***********************
ECHO OFF
NET STOP "Automatic LiveUpdate Scheduler"
NET STOP "Automatic Updates"
NET STOP "Creative Service for CDROM Access"
NET STOP "Crypkey License"
NET STOP "Cryptographic Services"
..etc
..etc
ECHO All done!!! Review the messages above to ensure all were stopped successfully.
PAUSE
**********************

An example START.BAT file:
***********************
ECHO OFF
NET START "Automatic LiveUpdate Scheduler"
NET START "Automatic Updates"
NET START "Creative Service for CDROM Access"
NET START "Crypkey License"
NET START "Cryptographic Services"
..etc
..etc
ECHO All done!!! Review the messages above to ensure all were started successfully.
PAUSE
**********************

Copy and paste each of the above respective sections into their own txt files named STOP.BAT and START.BAT. To edit a .bat file "right-click" it's icon and select edit. If you try to double-click to open it, it will execute.

What services you choose to stop during game play is up to you, just make sure you only stop those you are confident will not cause problems for your PC. If you don't know what the service does, DO NOT include it. I provide some great links under the "Disabling useless services" section to help you research them properly.

If you don't already know, you can view your services by entering services.msc at the command line or by browsing to Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services.

Disabling useless services:

I have also previously disabled unwanted services on my pc. Those I am stopping and starting in my batch files for game play, are important to the proper operation of my machine. I just don't want them hogging my systems resources during a game. The ones I have previously disabled, I do not want, and disabling them actually helped improve my PC's boot time.

I will not tell you which ones I think are useless, thats a personal preference. Research from the following sites helped me decide what services I would disable, or set to manual or automatic. I used these references as a guide, NOT as gospel. Some services that they recommended I disable, I disagreed with and kept as either manual or automatic.
http://www.theeldergeek.com/services_guide.htm
http://tinyurl.com/g53ho
http://tinyurl.com/ycdz7d
http://tinyurl.com/mc2db

Also, I found out this little tidbit: some of the above sites may recommend disabling the DNS Client and the Task Scheduler. Doing this is not a good idea as it has been proven it actually reduce your systems performance. See the following:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/318803/en-us

How to view and modify services:
You can open your services window by entering services.msc at the command line or by browsing to Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services. You can manually stop and start services by right-clicking on a service and selecting start or stop or by selecting properties and changing the service's status in the properties dialog box. The service's properties dialog box is also where you can set the service's startup type as either automatic, manual, or disabled.

If you need help give me a shout.
Hope this helps,
Ginger

ECHO OFF
NET STOP "Automatic LiveUpdate Scheduler"
NET STOP "Automatic Updates"
NET STOP "Creative Service for CDROM Access"
NET STOP "Crypkey License"
NET STOP "Cryptographic Services"
NET STOP "Error Reporting Service"
NET STOP "Help and Support"
NET STOP "InCD Helper"
NET STOP "Print Spooler"
NET STOP "LexBce Server"
NET STOP "Network Location Awareness (NLA)"
NET STOP "Protected Storage"
NET STOP "Server"
NET STOP "Shell Hardware Detection"
NET STOP "Windows Image Acquisition (WIA)"
NET STOP "Windows Time"
ECHO All done!!! Review the messages above to ensure all were stopped successfully.
PAUSE

ECHO OFF
NET START "Automatic LiveUpdate Scheduler"
NET START "Automatic Updates"
NET START "Creative Service for CDROM Access"
NET START "Crypkey License"
NET START "Cryptographic Services"
NET START "Error Reporting Service"
NET START "Help and Support"
NET START "InCD Helper"
NET START "Print Spooler"
NET START "LexBce Server"
NET START "Network Location Awareness (NLA)"
NET START "Protected Storage"
NET START "Server"
NET START "Shell Hardware Detection"
NET START "Windows Image Acquisition (WIA)"
NET START "Windows Time"
ECHO All done!!! Review the messages above to ensure all were started successfully.
PAUSE