I don't mind at all. You guys are patient with this bumbling newbie and I'm happy to share if this can help anyone else.
Here is my main list of 25 services that are allowed to run from Msconfig and 1 startup item. The startup item is for my IDT sound card and there is one service that is specific to my HP computer that you probably won't have.
These are the services run to give me a fast machine for things like gaming or office work. The list is in two parts. The first part doesn't have Networking enabled. I have added the services needed to make Networking work in the second part of the list.
I use Home Premium 64 bit but this should work for all Window 7 machines. You can use these same apps and procedures to tweak Vista and XP though those services will be different from the ones in my list.
My machine is a Windows 7 64 bit laptop with a 2.1 gigahertz single core AMD processor and 4 gigabytes of ram. It also has 336 Megabytes of dedicated video ram and can use system ram for shared video memory up to 1.2 gigabytes.
You may have to enable some services depending on your needs. If you try to do something and you get an error saying that the service is not running, you know you need to go back and re-enable that service. Does tweaking and disabling un-needed services really help? I swear by it. As a hard core gamer there are games that will barely run without my tweaks. I know the virtual machine I'm using for Vector is running Vector much better than if I didn't apply the tweaks. Microsoft says Windows 7 is already optimized for good memory management and they tell you not to disable any services because it won't make a difference. In my experience, Microsoft lies.
Windows Audio Endpoint Builder
Windows Audio
DHCP Client
COM+Event System
Windows Font Cache Service
Group policy Client
hpqwmiec (HP App specific to my PC)
Multimedia Class scheduler
Power
RPC Endpoint mapper
task Scheduler
System Event Notification Service
Shell hardware Detection
Audio Service
UPnP device Host
Windows Managment Instrumentation
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To add Networking to your faster system above use these.
DNS Client
workstation tcp/ip netbios helper
Windows installer
Network Connections
Network List Service
Network Location Awareness
Network Store interface service
WLan auto config
WWan auto config
HomeGroup Listener
HomeGroup Provider ( I don't use these two, but you might need to if you use the HomeGroup feature of windows 7 for networking with other Windows 7 machines.)
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My only startup item in Msconfig is, IDT Audio Service
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To figure these out I used several sources of information, then experimented like crazy. I used information from the descriptions of the services under services.msc, Black Vipers popular windows services tweaking website, (
http://www.blackviper.com/ ) and I used the tools, Msconfig (built into windows), Pserv and S.M.A.R.Tv2. Pserv and SMARTv2 also have descriptions of services.
I use Msconfig by disabling everything including all Microsoft services, I manually check off the services I want to enable above then reboot. After rebooting I save the profile with Pserv so I won't have to do the work manually again.
Smart v2 is a tweaking app based on Black Vipers information that gives you 3 levels of tweak configurations. They are Safe Tweaks, Moderate Tweaks and Advanced Tweaks. It also has a custom tweak that lets you make a custom profile. Most importantly this app has a built in Default configuration that you can use to re-enable everything if you mess up your system.
Pserv lets you save a profile of tweaked services as an xml file. You can make many profiles and simply load one and reboot to make the changes. You have to use either services.msc or msconfig to make the changes, reboot, then use Pserv to save that configuration, naming it anything you want. I find using msconfig is easier and faster than using services.msc. To restore a profile you have to go to File and Apply XML Template. Choose a saved profile and click Open. At the bottom of the app you will see Default Actions. Choose the last option to " Start at system boot" then hit O.k. and reboot your system.
On first use, you Must make a default profile with all services enabled. This app does not provide one for you. For some reason after loading a tweaked file with this app, the feature to enable all services in Msconfig is greyed out sometimes. You cannot even enable them in Safe Mode. This is a bug and doesn't happen all the time. If you don't make a default app and you get this bug there are ways around this. You can start up Smartv2 and use that to restore your system with all services enabled or you can manually set them to on from services.msc. Using Smartv2 is the easier quicker option. The effect of this bug may also go away after a few reboots as it does for me. This may be annoying if this bug shows up, but it won't permanently damage your system.
You can of course just use one of the 3 profiles listed in SmartV2 but I felt like that wasn't enough tweaking. For my purposes here running a Mud from Vector Linux inside of a virtual machine I needed a very slim fast system, I needed to tweak it to the max. You may have to enable services for things like Bluetooth if you use them.
I recommend to anyone reading this to spend a lot of time studying what each service does before you do heavy manual tweaking and make restore points. Never disable everything and reboot. Always keep Smartv2 handy so you can restore to a default profile, use Pserv to save tweak configurations as you go.
S.M.A.R.T v2 can be found here
http://www.thewindowsclub.com/smart-a-utility-for-tweaking-windows-7-vista-xp-services This program doesn't use an installer so I suggest unziping it putting it in an easy place to find it like your C drive. You may also want to create a shortcut to SMARTv2.exe for your desktop.
Pserv version 3 comes in a bundle of several tools called Gtools from Gerson Kurz of p-nand-q.com
http://p-nand-q.com/download/pserv_cpl.html There is also an older version available that's not bundled with Gtools. I used version 3 form Gtools and manually created a shortcut to it for my desktop. After installation Gtools and the pserv.exe can be found here C:\Program Files (x86)\p-nand-q.com\GTools
Remember folks, also defrag your hard drive and use a good registry cleaner and make frequent backups and restore points, watch that you don't have too many things running at startup and use a good virus scanner. I also recommend using Sandboxie to sandbox your web browser so virus's cannot access your system over the internet or from your downloads until you have scanned them to know the file is safe.
Edit: I don't use System Restore and my above profile doesn't allow System Restore to run. If you want to use System Restore you need to do so from a default profile with all services enabled or enable Volume Shadow Copy and .. ( I'm having trouble finding all the services needed to enable System Restore.. As soon as I find them, I'll post them- It's 4 am.) Again, remember, my configuration is based on my needs, your needs may be different. My profile also doesn't allow for many security services to run. It's meant to get Windows running barebones for speed and low resource usage. Always tweak at your own risk.
Happy to help, I'll try to answer questions if anyone has any. Sorry for such a large post but I couldn't just post the list without instruction or warnings. That would have been irresponsible of me. I don't wish to see anyone's system harmed.