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Beginners Guides: Little Known Features of WindowsXP
Beginners Guides: Little Known Features of WindowsXP - PCSTATS
We will explore the features and abilities of WinXP, with an eye towards providing a better understanding of the capabilities of the operating system, and the options available to the user.
Filed under: Beginners Guides Published:  Author: 
External Mfg. Website: PCSTATS Jul 30 2007   M. Dowler  
Home > Reviews > Beginners Guides > PCSTATS

Windows Services

Services are the various background processes that the Windows operating system is running, as well as other third party applications. Essentially, every action that occurs within Windows is governed by and uses one or more services to carry itself out.

For an idea of the list of things that the typical Windows services oversee, go to 'computer management/services and applications/services' and enlarge the 'description' column.

Services can be configured with one of three settings, disabled, manual and automatic. Automatic services will be started every time Windows is loaded, while manual services must be activated by the user via an executable file or command. Disabled services are, well, disabled.

Generally speaking, playing around with services is not recommended as the majority of them are critical to the function of the operating system. There are certain exceptions to this though, which is why it is wise to know the location and functionality of this screen.

Third party services may have undesirable effects and need to be disabled, and even certain native Windows services may need to be stopped occasionally.

Once excellent example of this is the messenger service. Used in many other versions of Windows to enable internet messaging from the command prompt, messenger's implementation in Windows 2000/XP allows it to be used for unrespectable remote advertising purposes, to incredibly annoying effect.

PCSTATS
If you have a non-firewalled PC with XP and an Internet connection, chances are you have seen several grey advertising popups appear on your screen from time to time. These adverts are being received through the messenger service, which listens for remote messages and dutifully pops them up for your attention, regardless of the source.

While many 'spam-killer' software packages advertise the ability to block these pop-ups as part of their list of essential services, stopping them yourself simply requires disabling the messenger service, since its functionality has been superceded by Instant Messaging programs such as MSN messenger anyway.

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Contents of Article: PCSTATS
 Pg 1.  Beginners Guides: Little Known Features of WindowsXP
 Pg 2.  The Windows XP Event Viewer
 Pg 3.  Local Users and Groups
 Pg 4.  Hard Disk Management
 Pg 5.  Mounting Drives as Folders
 Pg 6.  To Mount a Partition as a Directory
 Pg 7.  Operating System Restore
 Pg 8.  System Restore Continued
 Pg 9.  — Windows Services
 Pg 10.  How to Disable a Service
 Pg 11.  Accessibility Options
 Pg 12.  Built in Backup Utility
 Pg 13.  Files and Setting Transfer Wizard / Local Computer Policy Settings
 Pg 14.  Windows Task Manager / Enabling Firewall

 
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