Windows 11 Equivalent to the old Black Viper Services list?

I'm FAR from a Windows 11 Services expert. And with the incredibly difficult descriptions Microsoft provides along with the incessant dire warnings the "something, somewhere, some time, MAY NOT WORK", I'm reluctant to just wander in and start fiddling with services.

BUT, today I was watching the resource monitor and got curious. So, I opened up the services and started going through them. Just looking to see how many services that are Manual, are running. The number of Automatic and Manual services running on this simple Windows PC seems staggering... Things like

CNG Key Isolation
Display Enhancement
HV Host - I"ve never needed a virtual machine for anything as far as I know
Microsoft Store Install - I don't recall ever putting ANYTHING from the MS Store on this system.
Radio Management
Report Access Connection Manager

along with a lot of other services with names and descriptions that are largely gibberish.

I don't want to do anything crazy, but if there are a bunch of special-purpose services running that the system doesn't need or ever use, it seems like a good idea to shut them down. Is there a list of Windows 11 services with ordinary English descriptions of what they actually DO?

@GracieAllen

Since Microsoft isn't sure yet, what Services need to be running, I would leave them alone.
I myself am a Services tweaker, and since Windows 10 and 11, even I leave them alone.
I've had Black Viper's site bookmarked since the Windows XP days.

I have turned off a few that I personally don't use, like...

Bluetooth, Smart Card and Printer Services, and I'm very careful about even those.
Since Windows 10... Windows has definitely changed. It's not "built" like it used to be in Windows 7 and before.

Other than a very few that you might see and understand and know you're not going to use.... just leave them alone.

GracieAllen said:

Microsoft Store Install - I don't recall ever putting ANYTHING from the MS Store on this system.

Click to expand...

Most, if not all, of the pre-installed apps are Microsoft Store apps. And there are a bunch of MS Store app icons that, when clicked, will install the app from the store.

To the OP,

I spend most of my time just ensuring that apps that I am running that I don't need regularly aren't in the startup list. (For example, I play with Docker, but I don't need Docker Desktop starting everytime Windows starts, same with Amazon Music. So, I go into their settings and turn them off so that they don't start. They only start now when I want to start them and actually use them.

In my opinion, these tweaks bring more performance to the box than shutting off background services that are running.

Ditto! Since "Services" first showed up, years ago, I've been all over them like white on rice.
If I don't need it, I DON'T want it running in the background on my little (old) PC.
There are some obvious ones, and then there are the more clandestine ones, that defy understanding.
Then there are the ones that look really important, like they should never be shut off, but are actually a Wolf in Sheeps Clothing.

I really don't remember, when I got the last listing from "Black Viper" but I used his info to write a batch file, to change the way that many services run, or don't run. If there were any other source for the kind of information that he gave us, I'd be an avid reader!

Whatever the source, if you find some services that you want to 'Manualize' or 'Disable', you can put those into a batch file, so you can repeat the process, easily, on multiple PC's.

Here's just a sample, of the batch file I use. I titled this Batch file, "Stop Services Win 10" and it's dated 2008.

@echo off
cls
rem This batch file will Stop selected Services and set them to Disabled.
rem The following are a few examples of task name vs actual program name.
rem Schedule = Task Scheduler
rem Themes = Themes
rem W32Time = Windows Time
rem SysMain = Superfetch
rem WinDefend = Windows Defender
rem
sc config Appinfo start= demand
sc stop Appinfo

sc config ALG start= demand
sc stop ALG

sc config AppMgmt start= demand
sc stop AppMgmt

sc config wbengine start= demand
sc stop wbengine

sc config CertPropSvc start= disabled
sc stop CertPropSvc

So, when I'm setting up a new Windows OS, I just run that Batch File (with admin privileges)
and just move on to other tweaks.
I could literally spend hours tweaking 'Services' or just a few seconds running the batch file.
If you really want to KILL a service, first find out the actual file name for it, then find that file, (probably in Windows\System32) and delete it.
That move is irreversible so make sure it's done carefully.

Reading "Black Viper.com" I came up with this disheartening comment:
"

• No, I will not update for Windows 11… I don’t even use Windows anymore; I use Linux for general computing with console gaming (currently XSX) for entertainment and have for years."

So I'm going to keep on using the batch file that I wrote some time ago, and just add to it as I find things that I want 'Gone'.

Thank You, Gracie, for opening this topic.
TechnoMage

Viper's guides were decent enough - back when Win 2K SP4 & XP was a thing, but even his recommendations left further room for tweaking. Since back then a PC with 256 DDR was also a standard (even rigs with 128 SDR were quite common) - so, clearing around 60 Mb RAM was quite noticeable. Since then a lot has changed - even improved to some extent. There's probably 3x more services - but only couple of those are more or less demanding (like SysMain - aka SuperFetch / working as intended - i guess... just not the way i see fit - so i prefer it Disabled). Most of the others - are worth Disabling or set to Manual - due to privacy reason. I mean, this days - Ram is faster, cheaper and around 16 GB (or 8GB for office builds) - is the new standard. All Services combined - tend use around 3GB (if SysMain is Disabled - that is). To lower the usage close to 1GB - you'd have to strip away all kinds of core features.

Anyway, different people - different needs (or another way to put it - what works for one doesn't work for everyone). For example - i prefer/use a Wired NW Connection - so i Disabled most of the wireless stuff, thus... if others would copy my stetting - and use a Wireless Connection - they'd end-up disabling the internet. :) Even Bluetooth is Disabled on my rig. I used a Script to back-up all the Startup settings. Tho, initially was made for Windows 10 - so i had to start from scratch with Windows 11. Mainly, because it's still slightly unstable here and there - so - same settings proved to have an impact on functionality. Yet, not if set to Manual - so i have more on Manual than Disabled (40 to be more exact - but around 30% of those are tied to proprietary software - non-Windows). Might take awhile - but - you can find info on almost every Service.

Thanks for the replies!

I think I was surprised by the sheer volume of "stuff" running on here. And figured there have to be a bunch of things that are the equivalent of "Fax", which is only useful (if then) if you do something with Faxes on your PC.

I know Black Viper wasn't doing an update for Windows 11 (I'm not sure how much was done even for Windows 10), but I was hoping someone else had decrypted the gibberish for a lot of the humungous list of Windows 11 Services to give us a clue what's critical, what's useful, what's only useful on a subset of computers, and what's safe to set to Manual or Disable WITHOUT screwing up the world...

Looking at the list of Apps, there are a few, like Clock I use and have start, and a couple like Snipping tool that are sometimes useful, but I think I have MOST of the others so they don't start when I boot up - there's a LONG list of Disabled stuff in Startup in the Task Manager. I also looked through the long list of stuff in the Task Scheduler and turned off a bunch of Triggers.

I continue to be impressed with Microsoft's ability to provide descriptions (and other data) that is probably accurate without providing any actual useful information.

Like TechnoMage2021 and neves, I don't like a bunch of stuff sitting out there doing who-knows-what - it's untidy and cluttered, through I USUALLY set things to Manual rather than Disabled unless I'm pretty sure isn't going to do anything disastrous!

I'll go through the bunch of "apps" and hopefully make sure they're not running except when I need them. In the event I want to be sure an App ISN'T doing anything, do I have to uninstall it (say the xbox app), or is there some way to ensure it doesn't load or start or do anything else 'til needed?

I can only say "WOW!!!" when someone says their PC has many-multi cores in their cpu, and 32 GB of high speed RAM and terrabytes of SSD.

Because here I sit, using an old Acer Slimline desktop, that was given to me years ago, after being blown up by lightning.
I think it has a 'Vista' sticker on it. I refurbished the little PC, with a heavy duty PSU, and maxed out the ram to 4GB which it has to share with the Video, sound, and anything else that needs some. The only real upgrade to it, is the Crucial 500GB SSD. That seriously cuts down on the heat, noise and power drain on the little box. Win-11 really puts my little AMD, 2-core, Athlon cpu's feet to the fire, so to speak.
It ran Win-8.1 pretty dang good, for its size, and I must admit that I was really afraid it would fall on its nose, trying to run Win-11.
But I'm here to tell yous guys that it's running Win-11 pretty darn good! Boot up is only about 10+ sec's. and shutdown is about five sec's. I've disabled everything I can, from the startup list.

I've addressed the problem of junk file buildup, and I've got that under control, now to attack the matter of the un-needed Services.
I do knock off a few with a batch file based on Black Viper's work. But I'm sure I can add another dozen or more services to that old batch file.
Thankfully that little program is written in DOS Batch Language and is easily added to.
I guess it's time for me go get to work.
Cheers,
TM
PS: Does anyone know an easy way to get a printout of the 'Services' the way they are presented in "Services.msc" ?

TechnoMage2021 said:

Because here I sit, using an old Acer Slimline desktop, that was given to me years ago, after being blown up by lightning.
I think it has a 'Vista' sticker on it. I refurbished the little PC, with a heavy duty PSU, and maxed out the ram to 4GB which it has to share with the Video, sound, and anything else that needs some. The only real upgrade to it, is the Crucial 500GB SSD.

Click to expand...

Wow. And here I thought I was running "old" with my 2012 Acer V3-771G laptop (8GB RAM and 1TB SSD that replaced the original HD). I'll stick with Windows 10 though. I have Windows 11 running on a separate machine for software development testing, but see no reason to switch on the Acer. I do like the tabs in Windows 11 File Explorer, but I have to roll back Explorer to the Windows 10 version to get rid of the stupid folder type setting bugs, so that's moot for me. Maybe when (if) Microsoft fixes those bugs I'll upgrade.

I just realized I hadn't updated the computers recently, so I did...

BTW: I also took a look at the task scheduler. It's about as bad as the list of Services... There have to be dozens of things getting run, some are easy to figure out and disable, others I have no idea and couldn't find anything useful online, so I left them alone.

Back to Apps - do I have to uninstall them to make sure they're not doing anything, or just keep them from being Enabled in the Task Manager, or what?

GracieAllen said:

Back to Apps - do I have to uninstall them to make sure they're not doing anything, or just keep them from being Enabled in the Task Manager, or what?

Click to expand...

Ideally, if you don't need something, uninstall it. Best suggestion is to not install anything you don't absolutely need. I prefer to test and experiment with software in a VM until I am certain that it's something that i want to use. Then I will install it on my actual machine. This just keeps your registry clean.

I don't play with a lot of strange software. Most of what's on here is tools for handling images. Not a gamer so I don't need the XBox thing or any of that, so there are likely some apps I can still get rid of.

We use to recommend Black Viper back in the days i was doing HJT logs for Tec-Tv with Laport & his partner, it does not exist any more i think ! The owner leaves messages for us older Malware Removal Specialist but he has stopped doing that last i checked, it was a good program but the newer programs ...... wow !

I used to set my old Win XP system using Black Viper's recommendations too. But considering the way Windows 11 works now, I really don't see the point in it today. It appears to me that a service is only actually started if it's actually being used so it's not really a drain on CPU cycles or memory. So simply disabling it is pointless.

Second, if you try to remove the service and delete it from the disk Windows will just fix it right up by reinstalling it and most likely re-enabling it at the next major update. The disk space that Win10/11 requires for that kind of robustness is pretty bad. But..if striving for a minimalist install that even runs off a USB stick drive, doesn't Microsoft make it possible with a customized WinPE install?

And last: computers are massively overpowered these days with vastly more CPU cores, threads, Ghz, memory GB's and storage TB's available than most people can adequately utilize. That seems to make resource constraints not really an issue in any respect. I'd rather leave the OS to do it's thing.

So in conclusion.....there really is NO conclusion. Each person has to make up their own mind, as to how they want to address the "Services" subject. And I already know, that many will just say "Leave the Services alone!" and that's OK.

Personally, if I find something running in my PC that I can't explain, first I 'Google' it. Usually, I'll find a post by someone who knows what it is and why it's running. If I can't find an explanation of the object, I may just temporarily disable it, and then look for adverse effects. If my PC still works as it should, with no adverse effects, then I'll leave the 'thing' disabled.

Before Black Viper, I did a lot of experimentation with Services. And, many times I did disable something that killed my Internet, or some such.
I used System Restore a LOT in those days!

Experimentation today, with Win-11 can become a lifetime project. I printed out a list of all the services in Win-11, and it filled NINE pages!!!

So in conclusion.....there really is NO conclusion.

By default 11 runs about 150 processes, I cut that number to half, because less threads/handles is clearly better.
Stuttering happens even on gaming PCs, so superb harware is not everything, every little bit helps to avoid issues.

Yes, there's a whole herd of stuff running on my systems, and I like to keep things as neat and tidy as is reasonable... I generally try to get rid of as much of the bloatware and useless apps, and sundry garbage as possible. Do I REALLY need something running all the time to tell me when a new version of Acrobat Reader is available?

And, though I'm not a gamer, on my desktop, with a 12900 cpu and 64 GB of RAM, I regularly peg the cpu for long periods, and get up to 80 or 90% of the memory being used when doing image processing - Adobe and Topaz and Helicon are all memory hungry CPU hogs and generating a few thousand 1:1 previews in Lightroom is an easy way to keep the system very busy for a half hour. This system certainly isn't "massively overpowered"...

Having the most exquisite Micro Windows of all time, I am best positioned to give you the best possible answer.
These are the ones that you can disable while still maintaining out of box experience and better than out of box security.

Auto Time Zone Updater
Connected User Experiences and Telemetry
Device Management Wireless Application Protocoal (WAP) Push message
Net. Tcp Port Sharing Service
OpenSSH Authentication Agent
Remote Registry
Routing and Remote Access (not used by wireless nor wired internet)
Shared PC Account Manager
Windows Error Reporting Service
Geolocation Service
Intel Dynamtic Tuning Technology Telemetry
Print Spooler (if you are not printing regularly)
Server (SMB / Network sharing)
Shell Hardware Detection (Autoplay)
Themes (if you like minimalistic look)
Workstation (SMB / Network sharing)

pparks1 said:

Ideally, if you don't need something, uninstall it. Best suggestion is to not install anything you don't absolutely need. I prefer to test and experiment with software in a VM until I am certain that it's something that i want to use. Then I will install it on my actual machine. This just keeps your registry clean.

Click to expand...

^This

I have a list of programs which I use for years, but I only install them if and when I need any one of them.
Instead of installing them all at once after fresh OS install.

Less stuff installed = more stable windows.

TechnoMage2021 said:

PS: Does anyone know an easy way to get a printout of the 'Services' the way they are presented in "Services.msc" ?

Click to expand...

Nir’s utility is better than the built-in MMC for manipulating services.