There are some unnecessary Windows 7 services that you might want to disable to speed up Windows 7. This is going to be a list of Windows 7 services that are safe to disable!

List of Windows 7 Services Safe to Disable

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Windows 7 has many services that you may or may not require. By default, there can be many services enabled that you actually don’t need and it’s your job to optimize your setup for best performance. First of all, you should know how to disable services in Windows 7.

So, I went through the list of Windows 7 services and found those that are enabled that you might want to turn off. You should read the notes about each service and then decide if turning them off is a good idea for your PC.

It all depends on your needs. It’s a list of services that can be safely disabled, but you should still be careful what you turn off when you try to optimize your PC.

List of Windows 7 services that you can* disable when ..

*read notes between () to see what you are shutting down / turning off

Disable when: 3rd-party Firewall + Anti-Virus/Spyware installed

Windows Firewall is another Windows 7 service that you can disable if you have a good firewall installed.
Free Windows 7 Firewall

Windows Defender is another unnecessary Windows 7 service that you might want to disable if you are running another good spyware scanner and antivirus. (TOP5 Spyware Scanner for Windows 7, Antivirus for Windows 7)

Disable when: No HomeGroup Sharing

HomeGroup Provider and HomeGroup Listener are two Windows 7 services that you can disable if you do not want to share files or printers over a HomeGroup network with other Windows 7 PC’s. This features is a new Windows 7 service that can be safely disabled.

SSDP Discovery detects Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) devices on your network. So, if you don’t need to detect any devices of other PC’s that are connected to your network then you can safely disable SSDP Discovery. Keep in mind that SSDP traffic can still occur, to completely disable it also set the registry key

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \Software \Microsoft \DirectPlayNATHelp \DPNHUPnP]
UPnPMode = 2

Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service is another service that can be disabled. This one allows you to share libraries of your Windows Media Player over a network. If you don’t share libraries, you can disable it.

Disable when: Netbook PC

The Themes and Desktop Window Manager Session Manager services can be safely disabled, although your Aero Themes will stop working and you will only be able to use basic themes. This is recommended to speed up netbooks.

Disable when: No Scanner, Camera, Printer

Windows Image Acquisition (WIA) is a service that can be disabled if you don’t have any scanners or camera connected

Print Spooler can be disabled if you don’t have a printer.

Disable when: Advanced

Task Scheduler is a service that is needed to schedule tasks on your PC. Scheduling tasks can be useful to maintain your PC, but if you prefer to do it manually, you can safely disable this service.

Diagnostic Policy Service and Error Reporting Service are two services to troubleshoot your PC and detect problems. This service is usually started, but if you want to save resources you can disable it and re-enable the service should you ever need to troubleshoot your PC.

Offline Files is a feature that many disable anyway, so disabling the service Offline Files is definitely a good idea if you don’t need it. (How to disable Offline files)

What Windows 7 services can I disable safely?

The following is a list of Windows 7 services that should already be turned off. If they are not, you can safely disable them. Should you run in any problem, you can always re-enable the services.

  • Application Experience
  • Block Level Backup Engine Service
  • Certificate Propagation
  • IP Helper
  • Portable Device Enumerator Service
  • Distributed Link Tracking Client
  • Protected Storage
  • Portable Device Enumerator Service
  • Secondary Logon
  • Software Protection
  • Server
  • Tablet PC Input Service
  • TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper
  • Windows Media Center Service Launcher
  • Windows Search
  • Remote Registry
  • Windows Time
  • Windows Security Center
  • Windows Search

After optimizing your services, you should also optimize your startup programs. All Startup programs can be safely turned off, so I would disable as many as I could, because they definitely increase your boot up time. Read our tutorial: How to turn off startup programs.