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Groups > alt.comp.os.windows-10 > #181608

Re: More on disabling unneeded services in Windows 10

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On 1/20/2025 8:45 AM, John C. wrote:
> I started a thread with subject "Disabling unneeded services in Windows
> 10", and as I'm beginning to discover about this group, it quickly got
> sidetracked into unrelated discussion.
> 
> Perhaps it's my fault for not asking for contributions to that topic and
> perhaps I was being too general in scope.
> 
> Accordingly, I am going to begin asking about specific services that I
> would like to disable. Perhaps doing this will succeed in some very
> meaningful discussion.
> 
> No need to reply to this post unless you want to, others may choose to
> read and reply to you but I will be focusing on my service-specific
> posts instead.
> 

   When I first set up Win10 I made a composite image of
my services settings. I'd be happy to post that in case it
might be useful, but as I said earlier, everyone is different.
You really have to understand your own system.

   In my case, for example, I don't regard the LAN as a network.
Each device is independent and firewalled. So I need nothing
related to network, file sharing, etc. I disable workstation
and server services. I also disable all remote execution services.
That's all for security reasons and because I have no reason
to take such risks. I don't need to share files within the house.

   Other people want to share files with a second computer, send
a print job to another room via ethernet, run Remote Desktop
from their vacation home... That's a completely different usage
profile.

  This is an important point because by default Microsoft sets
things up to be in workstation mode. It's assumed that you're
on an open network because their real customer is business
users. There really is no SOHo version of Windows with
intranet security.

   Services are a bit like ActiveX in webpages. Microsoft had
invented some very clever stuff that was very unsafe. It took
them a very long time to accept the latter fact. Services on
NT are similar. When XP first came out it was the first retail
version designed to be a networked workstation. One of the
services set to run by default was called Messenger. (No relation
to FB.) Messenger allowed for things like an IT dept that was
asked to send out a notice not to forget the company picnic
on Saturday. They could easily send out a popup message to
every computer in the company. In no time, hackers were
using Messenger to pop up misleading messages in order to do
things like tricking people into going to a website for scam
software.

   For unknown reasons, in 25 years Microsoft have still not fixed
this sheer stupidity and produced a true SOHo system for
people who own their own computer. Their model is that on
a corporate netwrok, the IT dept owns your computer and
now, in SOHo scenarios, MS owns your computer. Of course,
you get to own the actual hardware, but Windows is now a
commercial service. Which is why it's increasingly hard to
set it up the way you want it.

   The status of disabling is also somewhat vague. For example,
if you disable Windows Update, Windows will overrule your choice
on Win10, which seems to be a first. On the other hand, if you
disable rpcss or background tasks infrastructure you'll break the
system, but Windows won't complain in its final throes! Though
many services now will block the change, telling you the setting
of disabled is not valid. It's an almost humorous passive aggression.
They don't say, "You're not alllowed to make this change." They
vaguely tell you there's something amiss. For those you have to
get the service name, look up in the Registry, and set startup to
4 if you want them disabled.

    Given such a circus of permissions, what kind of security
from 3rd-party hanky panky do you get by disabling services?
I really don't know. Can 3rd-party software change permissions
if running as admin? I don't know. That would be bizarre, given
that Windows seems unable to re-enable most services
unilaterally. But I wouldn't put anything past these people at
this point. They've made a bloated mess of things and they now
have conflicting motives, not least of which is trying to combine
a corporate clientelle with surveillance business model.

   On the bright side, Win10/11 are largely fixable, though it takes
a lot of work to reduce the bloat, eliminate the popup nags, etc.
A lot more things require 3rd-party tweaking than used to.

   An interesting side note: Windows Update Blocker does a good
job of stopping Windows Update, despite the built-in tricks to
re-enable it. I'm not sure how it works, but I suspect it's changing
permissions on the Registry keys, so that only Administrators
can change them.

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Thread

More on disabling unneeded services in Windows 10 "John C." <r9jmg0@yahoo.com> - 2025-01-20 05:45 -0800
  Re: More on disabling unneeded services in Windows 10 Newyana2 <newyana@invalid.nospam> - 2025-01-20 10:04 -0500
    Re: More on disabling unneeded services in Windows 10 Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> - 2025-01-20 14:32 -0500
      Re: More on disabling unneeded services in Windows 10 Newyana2 <newyana@invalid.nospam> - 2025-01-20 17:22 -0500
        Re: More on disabling unneeded services in Windows 10 Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> - 2025-01-20 21:24 -0500
          Re: More on disabling unneeded services in Windows 10 Newyana2 <newyana@invalid.nospam> - 2025-01-20 22:28 -0500
    Re: More on disabling unneeded services in Windows 10 wasbit <wasbit@nowhere.com> - 2025-01-21 09:41 +0000
      Re: More on disabling unneeded services in Windows 10 Newyana2 <newyana@invalid.nospam> - 2025-01-21 08:21 -0500
  Re: More on disabling unneeded services in Windows 10 Marion <marion@facts.com> - 2025-01-20 16:35 +0000

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