Without Reformating, what is....

the general stuff that we can uninstall from factory.
Because i have 82 processes running and i even uninstalled mcafee. (im using avast)
what else can i do?
Also how many processes are you guys running?

thanks

too lazy to update my sig, but i got an l502x.

Is avast better than Security essienstals?

 

i hate telling people to search, but man, common, this thread is literally right next to yours:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/dell-xps-studio-xps/570120-dell-xps-17-bloatware-what-remove.html

unfortunately there has yet to be much discussion of what to remove in detail.

 

But he didnt answer how many processes he is running and i would like to get an idea of how many other dell xps are running.

 

This is what I love about the Dell forum. There is a ton of info here. Most questions you can think of have already been answered.

The difference looks significant enough for me. I hate running unnecessary processes which slow down everything from bootup to running the apps I care about:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/dell-xps-studio-xps/568673-its-much-difference-between-fresh-install-factory-recovery.html

Thats 30+ extra processes he got rid of. Heck I don't even want 1 unnecessary process. And depending on what it does it can really make things slow down, like that cr@ppy AV.

Derek

 

Not a single process is useless to everyone, nor is a single process useful to everyone, so if enough people respond you'll eventually get enough bits and pieces saying to remove everything.

One thing I find useless is the "Tablet PC Components" in the "Turn Windows Features on or off" menu, as well as any Trial-ware in the "Add or Remove Programs."

 

Well, in the case above the owner removed 30+ useless processes. That is a great example of the difference between fresh install of the OS and the default one gets out of the box. It's always enough of a difference to be worth the effort for me. However as you've pointed out everyone has different requirements. That said it's better to start with the minimum then add only the processes you want rather than what someone else thinks you want or hopes to sell you on. Some of these are hidden.

Derek

 

You guys are misinterpretting my point. I meant to say what services can we remove without a fresh install

 

If you are interested in reducing the number of (unnecessary) processes running, I'd suggest going to
Black Viper's Website and simply following their recommendations with regard to which services you can disable. They have 3 sets of recommendations, which they call "safe", "tweaker", and "bare bones". By only using their "safe" recommendations, I was able to reduce the number of processes that I have running to about 50. Were I to use the "tweaker" or "bare bones" recommendations, I'm sure that I could get that number marginally lower. The url for the Windows 7 recommendations is
Black Viper’s Windows 7 Service Pack 1 Service Configurations | Black Viper's Website | www.blackviper.com.

 

Hm, I'm not sure how someone is going to answer that for you. I mean you say you have 80+ processes. That's quite a few. So you will have to go through one by one and determine if you need it or not. To do that you will have identify it's function, etc... That could be more work than reformatting and subject to more user error/guessing IMO. But of course you can give it a go. You may want to take a snapshot of your starting point before changing things in case you have to go back/restore.

** Edit: I just saw Lesz suggestion which may be the best way to go in lieu of a reformat.
Derek

 

Hey this looks pretty cool. It would be good to apply these to a reformatted system as well.

This would be a good comparison: number of processes running after reformat + blackviper recommendations vs. no change to stock install + blackviper recommendations. Of course both would have to use the same recommendation (e.g. Safe,...)

I wonder what the fewest processes running are after bootup by forum members? Of course ppl will vary depending on what additional stuff they install. But I'm talking about an initial baseline - OS + AV.

Derek

 

You can remove or stop any service. Which ones you disable depend greatly on what you use your laptop for. Is it connected to a domain network, a home network, or no network? If connected to a home network, do you share files/music/resources/printers/internet connection with another computer on the network? Do you want or need remote access? Do you use the Windows firewall or do you use a 3rd party one? Do you need telnet or any other network services? Do you play games online? Do you need UPnP for anything? What is your idea of a good security/performance to usability mix?

No one process, service, program, component, etc, is safe for everyone to disable. Windows comes the way it does to maximize compatibility for everybody. If you start shutting things off, it may break your laptop in an unexpected way. You shouldn't go messing around with things like disabling services if you don't know what they all do.

That said, you can probably get away with uninstalling most of the programs (Bloatware) that came with the laptop, but that is not the same as removing Windows services.

If you really want to learn how to tweak Windows, I'd start with this guide. It's long, but very informative: http://www.tweakguides.com/TGTC.html

If you want to go extreme, and start disabling every single non critical service, try this guide. It's very good, however be warned, many things they recommend will greatly decrease the usability of your machine, and may break many things, particularly any network/internet service outside of regular internet browsing. http://www.pchelpforum.com/windows-tutorials/81266-windows-7-security-tweaking-guide.html

 

That is an important point because, even if you do a clean install of Windows, it is still going to, by default, have many processes running that are not needed. Using the BlackViper recommendations and CCleaner and HiJackThis to make sure that no software or malware has made changes to the registry that are unnecessarily using the computer's resources, I'm guessing that you would end up with a leaner-running computer even without a re-install of the operating system than if you did a re-install of the operating system and did not take any other steps to make sure that either default programs or malware were not sapping the computer's resources.