Windows 7 Optimizing processes and services for better gaming on low resource PC

[John Phoenix]

I have a laptop with a single core processor and 4 gigabytes of system Ram. It has no video card, but a video chip on the motherboard instead. This video chip has 336 MB of dedicated ram And uses up to 1.2 gigabytes of additional shared system ram for video memory.

My goal is to slim down the running processes so I only have a few critical processes and services running to make Windows 7 64 bit operate, as well as have video and sound support.

There are LOTS of apps that help with this like Iobit's GameBooster, or the popular Black Viper website which has configuration information. These two options are very bad because they only address turning off a few processes and services - both leave way to many things running in the background eating up your system resources.. even with Black Vipers advanced configuration.

I have made a list of processes and services that can be shut down to give your PC more resources for gaming. This works well but you can help me tweak this better by suggesting removing some of these that may not be needed.

My list so far:
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Windows Audio

Windows Audio Endpoint Builder

DHCP Client

COM+Event System

Windows Font Cache Service

Group policy Client

hpqwmiex (HP App specific to my PC)

Multimedia Class scheduler

Power

RPC Endpoint manager

task Scheduler

System Event Notification Service

Shell hardware Detection

Audio Service

UPnP device Host

Windows Management Instrumentation
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What I do is open MSConfig.exe and go to StartUp and disable everything (unless it's needed for either my sound card or video card.

Next I go to the Services Tab and disable Everything. Then I re-enable only those in the list above, apply and reboot. Now I can play my game with just the bare bones services Windows needs to run.

You can just go back to MSConfig and re-enable everything and reboot after your done playing your game.

You may have to leave some services running that are specific to your brand of PC. In the list above I have the service " hpqwmiex " listed. You may not have this service but I have it because its required for my laptop to function properly.

( I may be able to disable this if I don't need it's functions for gaming.. still tweaking the list) The point is pay attention to these types of apps that your PC manufacturer installs. If you mess up and disable something you really needed, no worries, just go to MSConfig and re-enable everything and reboot.

This only works for games installed on your PC, not for online games. I don't play online games.

Someone could also suggest the bare bones services to add to the list so online gaming would work.

I also think it would be cool to have an app that would make these changes and reboot in one click.

So far this seems to give me better framerate leaves more CPU power and memory left over for my game. With this laptop, I can play most games out today on at least medium settings. With these changes my 350 dollar Wal-Mart laptop plays anything I ask it to and plays it well.

I would appreciate it if someone would help me streamline this list more.

Thanks,
John

 

[Mike]

This list has been around, and tested, for quite a long time. You may find that it can help accommodate you in this task:

Black Viper’s Windows 7 Service Configurations | Black Viper | www.blackviper.com

 

[John Phoenix]

I have already gone over all the information at Black Vipers site. Black Viper's info is not complete because he does not recommend using MSConfig to make changes to services. He claims this is because MSConfig has the ability to disable lots more services than Services.msc. His list only allows you to disable the services you can change through Services.msc. He does this so people don't mess up their system. I needed a more complete solution.

It turns out even with Black Vipers Bare Bones recommendations, Windows still wants to run tons of things in the background. Setting services to disabled with Services.msc would only get you part of the way to a super resource freed up system, then you would still have to use MSConfig for the rest. I prefer to do it all in MSConfig in one fell swoop.

Black Vipers site did help a lot with information on lots of services so I would know if it's safe to disable them. He just doesn't list all of them.

There is a a neat tool for those wanting to use Black Vipers recommendations called SMART Utility. It lets you set the services to your liking and save the profile so you can make changes in one click. Sadly, there is nothing like that for MSConfig that I can find and in my case, such an app would be welcome because I want to disable so much more than Black Viper suggests.

For now, I'm keeping a copy of my list and a shortcut to MSConfig on my desktop. It only takes a minute to make the changes and reboot.

I need to just go back over my list and tweak it a little more. I'm sure there is probably one or two in my list I can drop. Then I need to find out what services to add to allow for online gaming. This has taken me hours of studying services and trial and error to see what works best to get my list down this small.