Run > MSConfig

[Cid]

What would happen if I went in to edit my services and I unselected all of the things is the Services tab?

I already did it in the Start Up tab... something that everyone should do.

[Yamaneko]

Your system would probably startup, but nothing would work. No network connections, no themes, no printing, no plug and play, etc.

If you want to know exactly what a service does go into Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services. If you double click on the service it'll tell you what its function is.

[Dr Unne]

Some services are necessary even to use your computer I think. I wouldn't go disabling things unless you know what it does.

Did you mean to make this in the help forum?

[Loony BoB]

What if I don't know what something in the startup tab does?

[crono_logical]

What if I don't know what something in the startup tab does?Work it out then :p You can see the .exe it's pointing to, so either the path will contain the name of what it might be, e.g. Mozilla, or find the .exe in Explorer and look at it's properties - most will give basic information like the company that made it, a version number and a description of what it does. Last resort is google for it, if you think it's something you haven't installed :p

[Cid]

You can turn everything off in Start up and things will work fine. Some things, however, you may want to start... like AIM or real player or something... although I'm not sure why you would want that stuff to open automatically. Taking them off start up speeds up your system performance so much. I'd rather just choose to open them instead of being forced to.

Edit: What forum did I post this in?

[Dr Unne]

Feedback forum.

I have obliterated an XP system by disabling too many Services. Though some Services should be disabled just because of security hazards or annoyance, like Messenger. I'd probably be afraid to disable too many things now. If a program sets itself to run at startup, then it should have an in-program option to disable it. Hand-deleting things out of some obscure startup registry or service menu is an ugly hack with unpredictable results, which is typical of Windows I suppose.

[Yamaneko]

Messing around in the BIOS is usually a good way to speed up system startup.

[Baloki]

What if I don't know what something in the startup tab does?

Delete windows and install Linux :D

[Loony BoB]

Delete windows and install Linux :D
Yes, because then I would know what everything does. :)

[Rainecloud]

I've messed with MSConfig in the past. My advice is as follows: Don't.

It's not worth it unless you know exactly what you're doing.