features you disabled in Windows 7 and why?

[HawkMan]

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 yet to see a single person who disables UAC, who actually understands what the whole UAC package is and what UAC actually does outside of the warnings.

in fact the people who can disable it are the ones who don't know what it does, and just click ok when UAC asks if they really want to install the fake anti virus in their mail. Granted again, that's only a small subset of what UAC does but it's the most visible one.

[Shadrack]

None :) I have no need to - the operating system is perfect for me, as opposed to Windows Vista where I removed text labels from the taskbar and tried to make running program icons larger there - I was very surprised when they actually incorporated this into Windows 7 :D

+1

UAC doesn't annoy me. Everything that is built in seems essential for me (especially since they removed the features that Live! brings). And for everything else, it doesn't seem like removing them will give me a performance gain.

Has anyone seen a performance gain by disabling anything? I understand taskbar UI (if you like the old style) and UAC annoying people. But does anything actually give you more FPS in a game or make things "snappier?"

I've yet to see a single person who disables UAC, who actually understands what the whole UAC package is and what UAC actually does outside of the warnings.

in fact the people who can disable it are the ones who don't know what it does, and just click ok when UAC asks if they really want to install the fake anti virus in their mail. Granted again, that's only a small subset of what UAC does but it's the most visible one.

Exactly. People think that all UAC is there for is to annoy them with extra dialogs that ask are they sure they want to do this. But it also prevents other things (like a script running in another program) from executing code unattended. Forcing user interaction is a good thing. But if it is too annoying for you, then more power to you for removing it :D.

Linux and Mac have very similar "user access" features. All OS makers seem to think that it is a good thing.

[Udedenkz]

I disabled Windows Event Logging (the service has nothing to do now - it actually is set to automatic but turns off as it has nothing to do) through Manage MMC. That kinda came as a surprise to me.

I also disabled Task Scheduler. Well, "I" didn't - I think one of the apps I used did. I am not going to turn it on.... because.

Anyone know what eHome is? It is located in ProgramData folder. I currently cleaning up my ProgramData directory - It is kinda frustrating to STILL have traces of Office 2007 trial, HP Software, and Norton Antivirus after removing it.... >:(

In other news, I just deleted 130 files from %windir% :D - I hate licence.rtf files.

[ilev]

Disabled all 30+ services that phone home to microsoft + disabled access to microsoft URLs.

The full list : http://news.softpedia.com/news/30-Windows-...ft-129592.shtml

[Guest xiphi]

Disabled all 30+ services that phone home to microsoft + disabled access to microsoft URLs.

The full list : http://news.softpedia.com/news/30-Windows-...ft-129592.shtml

Should buy some aluminum foil while you're at it. Must be nice to run a system that is as crippled as yours.

[zhangm Supervisor]

Should buy some aluminum foil while you're at it. Must be nice to run a system that is as crippled as yours.

Just look at its previous posting history; you'll realize what it is and why it is here. ;)

[Udedenkz]

Anyone tried removing all the extra languages in system32 folder? For example, it-IT folder. Italian I presume?

If it hasn't changed from XP, it is safe to remove. Also I noticed another eHome directory in Windows directory. Interesting.

[soldier1st]

I disabled Windows Event Logging (the service has nothing to do now - it actually is set to automatic but turns off as it has nothing to do) through Manage MMC. That kinda came as a surprise to me.

I also disabled Task Scheduler. Well, "I" didn't - I think one of the apps I used did. I am not going to turn it on.... because.

Anyone know what eHome is? It is located in ProgramData folder. I currently cleaning up my ProgramData directory - It is kinda frustrating to STILL have traces of Office 2007 trial, HP Software, and Norton Antivirus after removing it.... >:(

In other news, I just deleted 130 files from %windir% :D - I hate licence.rtf files.

Udedenkz: task scheduler also does more than schedule tasks it also deals with the prefetch files and other things so i'm glad that you like a crippled system and continue to cripple it till it dies *Sarcasm*

[Udedenkz]

388MB Backup Folder,

C:\Windows\winsxs\Backup

When is the backup folder used? Anyone know?

Udedenkz: task scheduler also does more than schedule tasks it also deals with the prefetch files and other things so i'm glad that you like a crippled system and continue to cripple it till it dies *Sarcasm*

Looking through all the events in the Task Scheduler, I did not find this.

[HawkMan]

Disabled all 30+ services that phone home to microsoft + disabled access to microsoft URLs.

The full list : http://news.softpedia.com/news/30-Windows-...ft-129592.shtml

Pretty much all those phone home if you tell it to, and asks every time.

and most of them are very useful like error reporting. most error that occur, though there hasn't been many since most apps and drivers are now fully compatible, will return proper fixes for the problem, and if it doesn't one usually pops up within 1-2 weeks after the engineers get a look at it.

[Kirkburn]

Udedenkz, I don't wish to be rude, but you are getting to the point of self-parody. The fact you've even admitted to screwing up your PC many times should indicate that you are perhaps wasting a lot of time for little gain.

[techguy77]

Windows Search -> Running SSD in Raid 0. Really don't see any use of Windows Search, my computer finds things instantly.

HomeGroup -> useless, not sure what MS was trying to do with it

Superbar -> Can't get used to it, prefer Vista Style

Superfetch -> Automatically disabled on SSD

Defragmentaiton - > Automatically disabled on SSD

System Restore -> Disabled, however i use Windows Backup which is great. It does backups every week, that's all i need.

Windows Reporting -> Disabled

Tablet PC Components - Disabled. Why is MS pushing this useless thing on every machine?

Games -> Removed.

Is there way to completely remove Game Explorer? That thing is absolutely useless.

I would like to see WEI gone as well. Not sure why do we need it.

[Kirkburn]

Windows Search -> Running SSD in Raid 0. Really don't see any use of Windows Search, my computer finds things instantly.

HomeGroup -> useless, not sure what MS was trying to do with it

Superbar -> Can't get used to it, prefer Vista Style

Superfetch -> Automatically disabled on SSD

Defragmentaiton - > Automatically disabled on SSD

System Restore -> Disabled, however i use Windows Backup which is great. It does backups every week, that's all i need.

Windows Reporting -> Disabled

Tablet PC Components - Disabled. Why is MS pushing this useless thing on every machine?

Games -> Removed.

Is there way to completely remove Game Explorer? That thing is absolutely useless.

I would like to see WEI gone as well. Not sure why do we need it.

HomeGroup is about making home networks easier to create and manage.

Windows Reporting - i.e. letting MS know when you have issues? I guess it's a personal choice, but it's very useful for MS to get to know about problems, so they can fix them.

Tablet PC - it's possible that not all tablet-like PCs self identify as such, so the safer option is to show the components.

WEI - why on earth would you want to do that? It's a PC benchmark test. Getting rid of it would confer no benefit.

Interesting that an SSD speeds up searching that much, I'm slightly surprised.

[Inertia]

Just to give my thoughts on UAC disabling, I wontjudge anyone for disabling it if they want to, however I think its good practice to leave it on.

Disabling it is the same as running your Linux box for everyday use as the root user, or yoru Mac (which they dont by default).

[HawkMan]

HomeGroup is about making home networks easier to create and manage.

Windows Reporting - i.e. letting MS know when you have issues? I guess it's a personal choice, but it's very useful for MS to get to know about problems, so they can fix them.

Tablet PC - it's possible that not all tablet-like PCs self identify as such, so the safer option is to show the components.

WEI - why on earth would you want to do that? It's a PC benchmark test. Getting rid of it would confer no benefit.

Interesting that an SSD speeds up searching that much, I'm slightly surprised.

It doesn't.

Also as for the system restore. yeah backups work great for... backups.

however, if the system should crash for some reason, I would rather spend 2 minutes doing a system restore than hours for a reinstall and backup restore. System restore doesn't even slow down the system like it did back in what, win 98... and with yoru supposedly fantastic SSD, it definitely wouldn't affect affect performance at all.

[+allan MVC]

I don't get it. If the system has enough horsepower to run Windows 7, why disable anything (except perhaps the gadgets or other visual distractions that you don't care to see)? I'm not talking about tweaking things - that's fine - but why disable services, Windows components, etc? It certainly shouldn't impact performance to any noticeable extent.

[techguy77]

I run 2xSSD in Raid 0 (Performance setup). Really no reason for Windows Search and Indexing. The reason why i removed System Restore is that i don't want Windows doing too much writes on it.

HomeGroup is about making home networks easier to create and manage.

Windows Reporting - i.e. letting MS know when you have issues? I guess it's a personal choice, but it's very useful for MS to get to know about problems, so they can fix them.

Tablet PC - it's possible that not all tablet-like PCs self identify as such, so the safer option is to show the components.

WEI - why on earth would you want to do that? It's a PC benchmark test. Getting rid of it would confer no benefit.

Interesting that an SSD speeds up searching that much, I'm slightly surprised.

There are other PC Benchmarks much better then WEI. WEI seems to be just another thing which makes OS cluttered. That thing should go away. Make it simple!

[HawkMan]

I run 2xSSD in Raid 0 (Performance setup). Really no reason for Windows Search and Indexing. The reason why i removed System Restore is that i don't want Windows doing too much writes on it.

System restore shoudln't really do more writes. it just makes sure to keep "marked" deleted files for as long as possible so they can be restored. So as far as I know it shouldn't really add much writes to the disk, outside of marking the files with a system restore date, on the files or in a table.

and there's still a need for search, since windows search also does inside files, and indexed search will be faster than any SSD for searching inside files.

[techguy77]

System restore shoudln't really do more writes. it just makes sure to keep "marked" deleted files for as long as possible so they can be restored. So as far as I know it shouldn't really add much writes to the disk, outside of marking the files with a system restore date, on the files or in a table.

and there's still a need for search, since windows search also does inside files, and indexed search will be faster than any SSD for searching inside files.

Again i am not talking about single SSD. In my experience Windows Search didn't add any benefits. With or without search result comes up instantly as i click on key. I am sure Windows Search is good with regular HDD.

[HawkMan]

There are other PC Benchmarks much better then WEI. WEI seems to be just another thing which makes OS cluttered. That thing should go away. Make it simple!

WEI isn't a benchmarking tool. Well it is, but it's purpose is not to brag about your WEI score on neowin.

It's there because computer don't have a generic performance index, since different memory, disks, and cpu's even cpu producers(like the mhz myth) have different performance. you can't buy a game or software easily and just know it'll work on this and this computer.

WEI fixes this by actually creating a universal performance index. so when your mother buys you a game, she don't need archaic complicated lists of performance charts, she just needs the overall WEI, or the WEI of CPU/Memory/Disk

And then software can use the WEI to automatically tune their performance and graphical settings to your computer. like several apps already do, like the GPU accelerated WL gallery screensaver will do.

[CuCumber]

Disabling it is the same as running your Linux box for everyday use as the root user, or yoru Mac (which they dont by default).

It most definitely isn't.

With "over 10 years experience working in the IT industry on all scales from home computers to national corporate networks" you should know better.

[Shadrack]

It most definitely isn't.

With "over 10 years experience working in the IT industry on all scales from home computers to national corporate networks" you should know better.

Please explain...

There are other PC Benchmarks much better then WEI. WEI seems to be just another thing which makes OS cluttered. That thing should go away. Make it simple!

That really doesn't make any sense to me. It is a small part of a dialog box and has no effect on your performance what-so-ever by having it installed. Removing it doesn't free up more than a handful of MB of space. Seems like more of a hassle removing it from your install and us wasting time here discussing it than just leaving it alone. :laugh:

[Udedenkz]

Udedenkz, I don't wish to be rude, but you are getting to the point of self-parody. The fact you've even admitted to screwing up your PC many times should indicate that you are perhaps wasting a lot of time for little gain.

I already posted in this thread why I actually can't mess something up. To summarize - disk image, registry backup, system restore.

You can help me by answering the question I posted above.

[Shadrack]

I've gotta stop reading this thread. My eyes are getting tired from :rolleyes:

[ilev]

Should buy some aluminum foil while you're at it. Must be nice to run a system that is as crippled as yours.

Not crippled at all. Works faster without Microsoft's spyware applications.