features you disabled in Windows 7 and why?

[hdood]

If you disable UAC, you are a doo doo head. Disabling UAC breaks part of the OS.

Break? What does it break? It simply disables it. The people who disable UAC very likely aren't interested in any of it.

[HawkMan]

Break? What does it break? It simply disables it. The people who disable UAC very likely aren't interested in any of it.

Yeah and 99% of them don't know what disabling UAC actually disables either.

[hdood]

Yeah and 99% of them don't know what disabling UAC actually disables either.

and 98% don't know that what they really want to disable is just the AAM prompts.

99% of the people who insist it shouldn't be disabled no matter what don't know either of these.

Still, it's wrong to say that it "breaks" the OS. All it does is disable functionality, and if some people insist they don't want it, then it's sometimes best to just let them do what they want and move on.

[HawkMan]

and 98% don't know that what they really want to disable is just the AAM prompts.

99% of the people who insist it shouldn't be disabled no matter what don't know either of these.

Still, it's wrong to say that it "breaks" the OS. All it does is disable functionality, and if some people insist they don't want it, then it's sometimes best to just let them do what they want and move on.

While it won't break the OS, disabling it may cause problems with certain apps since it also disables the viartual folders thing. usually a problem only if it's not done right away if you feel you must disable it for some strange reason though.

[hdood]

While it won't break the OS, disabling it may cause problems with certain apps since it also disables the viartual folders thing. usually a problem only if it's not done right away if you feel you must disable it for some strange reason though.

You can just as easily flip that argument and say that file virtualization causes just as many problems as it solves, by hiding the true location of files. Having Windows disregard permissions and silently redirect I/O to a "secret" location is a feature (a dubious one at that), not an important part of the OS, and it doesn't break, it's just disabled. Breaking would be doing something like disabling a service which the system is entirely dependent on and that will result in errors. Optional features don't qualify, and people should stop exaggerating.

[HawkMan]

You can just as easily flip that argument and say that file virtualization causes just as many problems as it solves, by hiding the true location of files. Having Windows disregard permissions and silently redirect I/O to a "secret" location is a feature (a dubious one at that), not an important part of the OS, and it doesn't break, it's just disabled. Breaking would be doing something like disabling a service which the system is entirely dependent on and that will result in errors. Optional features don't qualify, and people should stop exaggerating.

umm no you can't really, unless you're stupid and turn off UAC when you install everything and then turn it on.

but no, you can't just flip it that way, since it doesn't really hide anything, it just creates virtual folders and you can find the files by botht he virtual folder or the actual folder. and I haven't heard or seen a single program have problems because of virtual folders (don't see how hey possibly could either) but it's known that enablind/disabling UAC can and will cause problems in several apps. without uac on, apps will create files in the "real folder it creates, folders that shouldn't be there, then you enable UAC and it's replaced by a virtual folder. Same thing if you disable it, the folder the app is looking for is no longer there.

and virtual folders are quite handy since they consolidate settings and extra app info in one known location.

now if MS could force game devs, especially the ones that use the GFW/GFWL tags to actually use the proper folders for save games, instead of half using the save games folders, half creating game folders, and the third! half (:p) creating developer/distributor folders in my documents and then save games under there. it even varies between games form the same developer and makes really messy documents folders.

[Orien]

I've only disabled some random things like Tablet services and Homegroups on my laptop.

[Sethos]

IPv6 - It causes massive, consistent lag-spikes when more than one network unit is online besides the PC, which is most likely because of my crappy ISP assigned router but disabling IPv6 solves it.

[HawkMan]

IPv6 - It causes massive, consistent lag-spikes when more than one network unit is online besides the PC, which is most likely because of my crappy ISP assigned router but disabling IPv6 solves it.

Usually is, sometimes it can be equipment at the ISP itself though, but a decent router will avoid that anyway.

[kwang_kung86]

I only changed UAC setting that not dim my desktop because when i'm listening music it caused playing music and video stop.

[Dashel]

Can't think of much I've turned off, now what I've had to turn on on the other hand...

Disabling Tablet tools is absolutely silly, you lose Snip! FAIL

Disabling UAC is unnecessary at this point and has a greater chance of causing new issues (New crappy apps like QB code for it being ON, the trend will continue)

Disable Shadow Copies, cause having a few versions of your files isn't worth a pitiful amount of drive space

[+LightEco Subscriber²]

I really don't understand people disabling features in Windows. Its not like those features take a bunch of space or even bother you if you don't use them. I also love people who disable a bunch of services to "boot faster and run lighter". Then they say "I don't mind waiting a little longer for searches". So you stop services to save time on boot only to wait longer everytime you do a search?

My favorite are the people who disable UAC, system restore, and everything else, then appear on the forums here a month later asking for help when their system died. I don't care how perfect you think you are with computers, you are not perfect. You will screw up and when that happens, the safety nets will not be there and you will be screwed.

I've disabled nothing and I don't plan to. Windows 7 works great for me and any of the petty things people are disabling aren't going to make a bit of difference in my experience. Really, do you need to save 50mb on your drive? OMG, I can now boot 10 seconds faster! Please...

Finally, be warned to the people changing their install of Windows 7 that like with Vista and Vlite, your probably going to screw yourself down the road with service packs.

[Guest xiphi]

Can't think of much I've turned off, now what I've had to turn on on the other hand...

Disabling Tablet tools is absolutely silly, you lose Snip! FAIL

Disabling UAC is unnecessary at this point and has a greater chance of causing new issues (New crappy apps like QB code for it being ON, the trend will continue)

Disable Shadow Copies, cause having a few versions of your files isn't worth a pitiful amount of drive space

Um, in 7, unlike Vista, disabling the Tablet components doesn't take the Snipping Tool with it.

[Orien]

My favorite are the people who disable UAC, system restore, and everything else, then appear on the forums here a month later asking for help when their system died. I don't care how perfect you think you are with computers, you are not perfect. You will screw up and when that happens, the safety nets will not be there and you will be screwed.

I think that's somewhat of a generalization. I've always disabled system restore as it's absolutely useless for me (especially now on a SSD with space at a premium). If I screw up so badly that I'd ever need a system restore, I just re-image my drive with an image snapshot.

[Dashel]

Um, in 7, unlike Vista, disabling the Tablet components doesn't take the Snipping Tool with it.

My mistake. I still wouldn't give up for Math tool though either but that was the big one.

[soldier1st]

if people wanna change things that is fine by me as it is there pc but if something breaks and they caused it then be prepared to either: learn from your mistakes or pay a tech to fix it everytime but if the system works fine for them then fine by me but don't go complaining about it if it breaks down as thats the risk you take.

[John.D]

Not much., Just indexing. I did disable windows search, but this is connected to an Xbox (thru MCE). And if search is disabled in Windows, search wont work on the Xbox either. Not too worried about ram, I'm using 8 GB. I'm only using 18% atm. It wont run out in a hurry. And 130-140 gb free space. Not that I've got a lot to put on it. Will probably kill UAC, since I killed it in Vista. Nothing killed me

[x-scratch]

well since i got a legit msdn account i decided to download 7 ultimate n downloaded the file i needed to get windows experience to work

under windows features i unchecked everything but the following i kept checked

games

ie8

tablet pc components

windows search

[boogerjones]

if people wanna change things that is fine by me as it is there pc but if something breaks and they caused it then be prepared to either: learn from your mistakes or pay a tech to fix it everytime but if the system works fine for them then fine by me but don't go complaining about it if it breaks down as thats the risk you take.

Turning a feature off shouldn't break the operating system. Ever.

[HawkMan]

Turning a feature off shouldn't break the operating system. Ever.

but they might make it useless.

and they are talkign about disabling services and registry tweaks as well.

[Udedenkz]

but they might make it useless.

and they are talkign about disabling services and registry tweaks as well.

If you can disable something useful, you can get it back.

For easy tweaking (disabling services and such), one can just enable them again. For more professional tweaking, there are things called registry backups, system restore, LKGC, and drive images.

I messed up my computer many times. What did I do? System Repair. System Restore. Registry Backup.

You can't make your system useless. :)

[hotdog666al]

Desktop Composition: Mixed opacity windows look disgusting. Flip-3D, silly gimmick.

Taskbar Grouping: I refuse to get used to the new way the taskbar works because I do not believe it's been changed for the better.

Windows Firewall: Consistently ruins multiplayer LAN games

Homegroup: I couldn't even figure out what this was supposed to be, please leave my computer immediately.

Explorer left panel: Do not want! Gimme my screen space back.

[imoz]

games - err, purble's place anyone?

internet printing stuff - we have our printer here, so no thanks.

sidebar/gadget platform - i don't use gadgets

shadow copy - i got a 20gb partition solely for 7 so nope, i don't like something wasting space.

[Chrysalis]

I really don't understand people disabling features in Windows. Its not like those features take a bunch of space or even bother you if you don't use them. I also love people who disable a bunch of services to "boot faster and run lighter". Then they say "I don't mind waiting a little longer for searches". So you stop services to save time on boot only to wait longer everytime you do a search?

My favorite are the people who disable UAC, system restore, and everything else, then appear on the forums here a month later asking for help when their system died. I don't care how perfect you think you are with computers, you are not perfect. You will screw up and when that happens, the safety nets will not be there and you will be screwed.

I've disabled nothing and I don't plan to. Windows 7 works great for me and any of the petty things people are disabling aren't going to make a bit of difference in my experience. Really, do you need to save 50mb on your drive? OMG, I can now boot 10 seconds faster! Please...

Finally, be warned to the people changing their install of Windows 7 that like with Vista and Vlite, your probably going to screw yourself down the road with service packs.

windows search hogs the machine, and many of us me included rarely use search. search still works on the start menu with it turned off.

Some of the replies here are simply scaremongering, I agree disabling certian services would make some problems such as disabling plug and play, but lets be realistic here, these comments are been made as if the people tweaking dont have a brain, most people who tweak their installation tend to do a bit of research first, windows is shipped in a state so that it has features enabled to appease the market. But there is nothing wrong with people turning features off they dont want to use. To say windows becomes useless when turning services off is just been silly.

[DDStriker]

Personally the "tweaking" I do is to make it behave more like the way I want rather than to improve performance. I feel that this is perfectly reasonable. I paid good money for it, people should let me configure it the way I want.

+1

wonder how difficult it would be to have the gui a bit more separated from the core (I guess kind of how linux is setup) that way we can keep our preferences in how the system should look/feel but also have the option to adapt anything new they bring out (or just specific features) across multiple os...can't see it happening but would be nice

Anyone who thinks it a good idea to disable UAC is an idiot. Sorry.

Anyone who assumes someone is an idiot for disabling UAC is an idiot. :)

Some people shouldn't disable it but for some it can be quite annoying and if they know what they are doing then sure why not

I've disabled nothing and I don't plan to. Windows 7 works great for me and any of the petty things people are disabling aren't going to make a bit of difference in my experience. Really, do you need to save 50mb on your drive? OMG, I can now boot 10 seconds faster! Please...

So by your logic those who disable these things that doesn't make a bit of difference yet saves 10 seconds in boot time are foolish?

I don't agree with disabling vital components but i do like to be able to customize how the system runs and change it to suit my requirements (haven't done much yet will as soon as i figure out exactly what i want :p)

If there are certain features which the user knows they will never use and it may save a bit of time (no matter how insignificant) then why does it bother you if they disable those features?

I think that's somewhat of a generalization. I've always disabled system restore as it's absolutely useless for me (especially now on a SSD with space at a premium). If I screw up so badly that I'd ever need a system restore, I just re-image my drive with an image snapshot.

+1

have tried to use system restore twice in order to save me from doing a full reload and both failed on two different machines haven't tried it on vista/7 yet i probably could of wasted more time into researching why it failed but eh wasn't worth it