Which services can be safely disabled?
Lots of threads exist about this on the net and it's a big job researching each service, so I thought I'd make a thread about it so it could be a community effort and so I have some record of changes I've made.
Please, no warnings not to meddle. This thread is for people who want to meddle. @TairikuOkami did an excellent job explaining why one may want to here.
Here's what have been disabled so far. Some of them were disabled from the start, or could have been disabled by winaero tweaker or some other tweaker. I don't use Edge much so I think I disabled them via the System Internals AutoRuns app.
Can anyone think of a reason why I may not want to disable any of those?
So far I've disabled: Delivery Optimization, AllJoyn Router Service, Assigned Access Manager Service, BitLocker Drive Encryption Service, Connected User Experiences and Telemetry, Geolocation Service, based on what I read here: Disable Windows 11 Services to Boost Performance Securely
"Delivery Optimization works by letting you get Windows updates and Microsoft Store apps from sources in addition to Microsoft, like other PCs on your local network, or PCs on the internet that are downloading the same files." Windows Update Delivery Optimization and privacy - Microsoft Support I'd rather have updates from Microsoft than torrented from other PCs.
Connected User Experiences and Telemetry is spyware. Why have that?
Assigned Access Manager is used to set up the kiosk mode. I don't need that as far as I can tell.
I don't use Bitlocker and I don't think that service is needed for anything else.
Geolocation locates me far away from where I am, so it seems useless, especially for a nonmobile desktop.
I thought about disabling Internet Connection Sharing because I'm not planning to share my internet, but I found it's needed for Windows Subsystem for Linux Ensure 'Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) (SharedAccess)' is set to 'Disabled' (CIS LEVEL 1) Although I don't use that, I do have Windows Subsystem for Android, and although Microsoft will no longer be supporting it as of March 2025, I figured it may be wise to leave ICS running just in case down the road it's need for some subsystem to have internet.
Also the Host Network Service needs to be stopped in order to stop ICS, so one may depend on the other. Redirecting Host Network Service may have something to do with a VPN, but I'm not really sure.
A member here said these services need to run to prevent Explorer from crashing:
Network List Service
Network Store Interface Service
Microsoft Office Click-to-Run Service
I plan to reply to this thread as I learn more.
Feel free to comment, opine, contribute.
Lots of threads exist about this on the net and it's a big job researching each service, so I thought I'd make a thread about it so it could be a community effort and so I have some record of changes I've made.
Please, no warnings not to meddle. This thread is for people who want to meddle. @TairikuOkami did an excellent job explaining why one may want to here.
Here's what have been disabled so far. Some of them were disabled from the start, or could have been disabled by winaero tweaker or some other tweaker. I don't use Edge much so I think I disabled them via the System Internals AutoRuns app.
Can anyone think of a reason why I may not want to disable any of those?
So far I've disabled: Delivery Optimization, AllJoyn Router Service, Assigned Access Manager Service, BitLocker Drive Encryption Service, Connected User Experiences and Telemetry, Geolocation Service, based on what I read here: Disable Windows 11 Services to Boost Performance Securely
"Delivery Optimization works by letting you get Windows updates and Microsoft Store apps from sources in addition to Microsoft, like other PCs on your local network, or PCs on the internet that are downloading the same files." Windows Update Delivery Optimization and privacy - Microsoft Support I'd rather have updates from Microsoft than torrented from other PCs.
Connected User Experiences and Telemetry is spyware. Why have that?
Assigned Access Manager is used to set up the kiosk mode. I don't need that as far as I can tell.
I don't use Bitlocker and I don't think that service is needed for anything else.
Geolocation locates me far away from where I am, so it seems useless, especially for a nonmobile desktop.
I thought about disabling Internet Connection Sharing because I'm not planning to share my internet, but I found it's needed for Windows Subsystem for Linux Ensure 'Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) (SharedAccess)' is set to 'Disabled' (CIS LEVEL 1) Although I don't use that, I do have Windows Subsystem for Android, and although Microsoft will no longer be supporting it as of March 2025, I figured it may be wise to leave ICS running just in case down the road it's need for some subsystem to have internet.
Also the Host Network Service needs to be stopped in order to stop ICS, so one may depend on the other. Redirecting Host Network Service may have something to do with a VPN, but I'm not really sure.
A member here said these services need to run to prevent Explorer from crashing:
Network List Service
Network Store Interface Service
Microsoft Office Click-to-Run Service
I plan to reply to this thread as I learn more.
Feel free to comment, opine, contribute.
- Windows Build/Version
- 23H2
My Computer
System One
-
- OS
- Windows 11
- Computer type
- PC/Desktop
- Manufacturer/Model
- Intel
- CPU
- Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-14900K
- Motherboard
- GIGABYTE Z790 AORUS Elite X WIFI7
- Memory
- Corsair 128GB (4x32GB) DDR5 5600MT/S CL40 Memory Kit
- Graphics Card(s)
- Onboard
- Sound Card
- Onboard
- Monitor(s) Displays
- 43 inch 4k
- Screen Resolution
- 2k (2560 x 1440)
- Hard Drives
- WD_BLACK 1TB NVMe SSD with Heatsink 7300 mb/s
- PSU
- MEG Ai1300P PCIE 5 & ATX 3.0 PSU 1300 watts
- Case
- Phanteks (PH-ES614PTG_BK) Enthoo Pro ATX , Tempered Glass, Integrated RGB Lighting
- Cooling
- ENERMAX LIQMAXFLO 360mm A-RGB AIO CPU Liquid Cooler
- Keyboard
- Wireless logitech
- Mouse
- Wireless logitech
