Ending background programs and services

[Stagefright]

I just found a great free utility which ends nearly all of the various programs and services which run in the background. I used to use Enditall, but I lost it and now it's no longer free.

SmartClose is a better alternative. As you may know, Windows (especially Vista) runs a lot of stuff behind the scenes. This is really noticeable when running Trainz. SmartClose shuts down everything nonessential, and restores everything without a reboot. I'm using Vista Home Premium and it works as advertised. Just thought I'd share...

Darrel

http://www.snapfiles.com/reviews/SmartClose/smartclose.html

 

[OldEric]

Interesting... successor to EndItAll program??

Eric

 

[Xcom]

Why would you want to reload non essential services? Just stop loading them in the first place.
http://www.blackviper.com/WinVista/servicecfg.htm

 

[collinsl]

If you know what you are looking for, then type msconfig.exe in the run box, and this SHOULD (I'm not sure about vista) open a window that has lots of tabs in. On the windows from these tabs are the programs and services that start with the PC. You can disable any of them from there.

 

[jjqburch]

Yes, it's the same in Vista, just that run is found under accessories instead.

Jonny

 

[CasyJ]

Be careful about using this, because it will try to terminate all background programs including antivirus, firewall and adware blockers. Be sure you check the ones you want to remain active.

 

[laldfordo]

If you know what you are looking for, then type msconfig.exe in the run box, and this SHOULD (I'm not sure about vista) open a window that has lots of tabs in. On the windows from these tabs are the programs and services that start with the PC. You can disable any of them from there.

True. But how do you know what it is safe to get rid of? I have used several downloaded programs to identify what may safely be disabled, and used them. But still my PC takes ages to start, probably because there are some programs or services I don't dare to disable.

 

[R701Rusty]

Hi,
I use "Winpatrol" to help me decide what programs are run at startup and can say that with only four programs currently running at startup my computer functions with no problems whatsoever. The four programs that begin each time the power is applied are Winpatrol, antivirus, firewall, and NVCplDaemon and even this last one is coming under scrutiny!
Winpatrol is freeware and I have used it for quite some time now, even on the previous computer where I had three programs as startup programs. The other thing to consider is that there are a lot of background programs often referred to as "services" and these require a whole different approach but still some can be at least disabled while Trainz is running by using something like Smartclose. I have recently begun using Smartclose thanks to this thread and find that by running it before a sitting down to a Trainz session it does help and the disabled programs are efficiently restored afterwards.

My computer specifications are Gigabyte M57SLI-S4, AMD Athlon 64x2 4800, 2048 800mhz Ram, Nvidia GeForce 7300/7200 GS, Western Digital SATA 80Gb. The O/S is XP Home 2002 SP2

Cheers
Russell.

 

[johnwhelan]

This may sound odd but I've been playing with 3 gigs of memory, and the frames per second were slightly higher with everything running normally than with this that and the other stopped. I suspect its the extra memory that's made available that gives some performance boost but with 3 gigs Trainz actually runs faster leaving everything running which I must confess was an unexpected result.

Cheerio John

 

[The_Rising]

Looks like were in the same boat John, I'm running my Vista as is with 3 gigs, and Trainz Flies!, when I start to disable unwanted features it does slow down a bit.