STOP UNWANTED XP SERVICES
Now that you have all of the older programs you want to run working properly with Windows XP, it’s time to take a look at some things that run in the background, likely without your knowledge. These are called services, and they are programs too. Unwanted or unnecessary services can be stopped, started, paused, or resumed by the administrator of the computer (a person with administrator rights). Services can also be configured to run automatically or manually, or they can be completely disabled. If you have Windows XP Professional, you can view all services from the Services console, which you open by clicking Start | All Programs | Administrative Tools | Services. If you have Windows XP Home, you’ll have to click Start | Search, type in Administrative Tools, click Search, and open the folder from there. (In Windows XP Home, Administrative Tools are not listed on the All Programs list.) Not all of these services are necessary, and you can disable several of them, but you shouldn’t just go randomly mucking about disabling a service because you don’t like its name or don’t believe it’s really needed. Most services are needed. However, there are a few you can disable, and in doing so, you can decrease the load the computer must bear just to run.