Well, to say that services and other processes have no effect on performance is to be blinding oneself to reality.  As in any multitasking OS, every process/task will expend cpu cycles - even if it is just a check cycle to see if anything needs to be done.  And each of these processes requires memory even if it is doing absolutely nothing.  So any bunk about how having all of the bells and whistles running creates no performance hit is just that - bunk.

Turn off visual bull.  Disable services that are of no use.  Make services start Manual-ly is they are needed only at certain time.  Turn off stuff that loads on Startup if not needed at startup.  Obliterate all of those darned SysTray icons that just sit there for no reason but supposed expedience (which are more usless processes).  There are only four items in my SysTray - two of them are for my internet/network connection (wireless), the others are NAV and Sound Volume.  And I have several hundred applications installed (a good portion wanting to set something in the SysTray) - so that shows how useful SysTray crap really isn't.

One thing that I do after disabling the 'visual enhancements' is to set the priority to foreground applications (programs) and not background processes.  Same for Memory Usage (Programs and not System Cache).  Unless you are running a server with background processes, these settings are the ones that should be used.

So, I agree wholeheartedly with svdl.  There is always a balance.  You cannot get better performance with more running processes.  Vista may have tweaked it, but this is a fact of computers.

Robert

C makes it easy to shoot yourself in the foot. C++ makes it harder, but when you do, you blow your whole leg off.

 -- Bjarne Stroustrup

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