There are two major groups of services. The first group of services includes the default services from Microsoft while the second group consists of services created by third party software.
Accessing and Managing Services
Windows provides a few ways to access and manage the Services installed on the computer.
1. Task Manager
The easiest way to find out about the running services in Windows 8 is via the Task Manager. Open the Task Manager and click the “Services” tab. You should see all the services in your computer.
2. Services Management Console
If you need more information about the services, you can go to “Run -> services.msc”. This will open the Services Management Console where you can view and manage your services.
The advantage of managing Services through the management console is that you will get descriptions of each service making it easier for you to decide what to do with the service.
Viewing only services created by third party software
In most cases, you will only see the big list of services that include both the default services by Microsoft and those that are created by third party software. To only list the third party services, follow the steps below:
This will hide all Microsoft-related services and show only those services created by third party software. If you want, you can uncheck any of the services to remove them from running in the background.
Safely disable services without any complication
Some of the services are essential to the system and wrongly disabling them can cause the whole computer to malfunction. If you are not sure which services can be disabled and which one you need to keep it constantly running, you can use Vista Services Optimizer software. Vista Services Optimizer is a useful software which can the services according to your profile.
Download Vista Services Optimizer. Although the software does not mention Windows 8 in the system requirements, I can confirm that it works in Windows 8. Note: he installer will try to install extra software along with Vista Services Optimizer. You will need to click on Decline instead of Accept in order to install Vista Service Optimizer alone.
Open Vista Services Optimizer and click on the “Automatic Tuneup” button. A new window will open where you can select options according to your needs.
After completing this, you will need to press the OK button followed by the Optimize button. Vista Services Optimizer will automatically enable or disable services according to the information provided by you.
After optimizing, it is recommended that you restart your PC for it to take effect.
Conclusion
There are tons of ways to optimize your Windows machine and disabling the useless services is one of the easiest way to improve its performance. If you have any question on Windows Services, please let us know in the comments.
