How to Free System Resources to Speed Up Important Programs / Services in Windows XP,Vista


The indexing service provides rapid access to files for a quicker search. However, it uses a lot of memory; a precious commodity. Working with bulky programs while the indexing service is running can be very slow.

Indexing and other services can be started and ended using the ‘net start <service name>’ and ‘net stop <service name>’ commands to deactivate unnecessary memory hogs before starting a resource hungry application like CorelDraw. The services can be controlled using the command line tool ‘sc’, accessible from ‘Start > Run > cmd.exe’.

Type ‘sc/?’ at the prompt for an overview of all available options. To start a service, type ‘sc start <service name>’, and to end it type ‘sc stop <service name>’. It would be wise, however, to stop a service only until your current operation is done and then continue running it again later.

The easiest way to do this is to create a batch file. Open a text editor and type the following code:

sc pause <service name>
start /w <program path> <program name>
sc continue <service name>

You can learn more from this post : How to Start and Stop multiple services at a time

Important: The <service name> of the command line tool ‘sc’ is not the same as the common display name of the service. To find the correct <service name>.

  • Go to ‘Start > Settings > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services’.
  • Double-click the appropriate service form the list and
  • Note the ‘Service name’ in the following dialog box.

Note: The command line tool ’sc’ can also be used to discover the current state of your services with the command ’sc query <service name>’ while the command ’sc qc <service name>’ queries the configuration information.

To change the configuration of a service use ‘sc config <service name> <option name>=<option value>’. There shouldn’t be a space after the equal sign. Further help on the configuration options is provided by typing ’sc config’ without any other parameters.

Filed under: OS Tweaks & Hacks
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June 14, 2009 by: Prasanth Chandra

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