Stop services running

Windows services are small programs that run in the background, providing things to the OS and your applications. Click Start, type Services.msc and click the 'Services' applet link to see the services installed on your PC, which is almost guaranteed to include some that you don't need. Here are some examples.

If you don't use Media Center then the Windows Media Center Extender, Receiver and Scheduler services are all surplus to requirements. The Distributed Link Tracking Client maintains links between NTFS files over a network. If you don't use that feature then it's unnecessary.

Similarly, IP Helper is useless for those without an IPv6 network; Offline Files has no purpose if you don't use its sync features; the Tablet PC Input Service is only for tablet PCs; and the Secure Socket Tunnelling Protocol Service is generally only useful if you're connecting to a virtual private network (VPN).

iTunes

APP BLOAT: Bloated apps like iTunes come with lots of unnecessary services and processes that slow your PC down

Potentially redundant third-party services include Apple Mobile Device and iPod Service, which come with iTunes and can be safely turned off if you don't have an iPod or iPhone. Bonjour Service is only required if you need iTunes or Safari to discover network services; Nero BackItUp Scheduler belongs to Nero Burning ROM, and can be turned off if you're not using the back-up tool; and Nvidia Stereoscopic 3D Driver Service is useless unless you have the 3D glasses needed to use Nvidia's 3D Vision technology.

Think carefully about the services that can be safely disabled on your PC. (And we do mean carefully: get this at all wrong and you could prevent Windows from loading, even in Safe Mode, so if in doubt about something, leave it alone).

Then go to work turning off the unnecessary components. In some cases you may be able to do this by uninstalling a program from Control Panel. That's where you'll find the Nvidia Stereoscopic 3D driver, for instance. But with most options you'll have to launch the Services applet ('services.msc') and tweak the settings yourself.

Services.msc pic

SERVICES: Change a service's Startup Type to 'Manual' to ensure that it won't load automatically but can be started if needed

The safest approach is to double-click the redundant service and set its Startup Type to 'Manual'; it won't be launched automatically, but will still be available if another service requests it. The problem is that this can leave some services running unexpectedly, so if you're 110 per cent sure that something isn't in any way system critical – Apple Mobile Device, say – then set its Startup Type to 'Disabled', and you can be sure that it won't be launched again.

Create a Turbo mode

Some of the most resource-hungry Windows services shouldn't be turned off permanently. We found that Windows Search consumed more than 250MB of RAM on our test system, for instance. That's annoying, but we'd miss the service if it weren't there.

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