Windows 7 services
 

Is there a utility or program that can sniff through Windows 7 services and determine what can be stopped/disabled? I recall seeing a link some where on this site that might had such program, but I forgot the thread. Also, something very peculiar happens when a new folder is copied to this Windows 7 machine. A sub-folder gets created every time. It's called "searchplugins". I have ran a scan with malwarebytes and deleted 29 infections, but the problem persists

try AVG PC optimizer 2011,,,or type, "msconfig"(No quotes) and you can disable anything from there., if your confident in your "RUN" box in start-up.But if your not knowledgable don't stop anything, or it could cause an issue.

W7 is pretty intuitive. It will adjust for your system performance automatically. No one that I know of shuts off services like the days of XP. If you must then check them one by one and decide if it something you need running. But really its best left alone. As far as your searchplugins folder issue Im not sure.

Searchplugin folder information

As far a services go, you can set them to start manually if you don't think you need them and if problems arise just set them back to automatic.

As this computer has malware on it, it's best dealt with by formatting and reinstalling the operating system fresh. Don't mess around trying to clean it.

Back up all the data first, if not already backed up.

It's called smart.

What does that do that the Services tab in msconfig doesn't do?

Still just do it manually-if at all-with Black Viper's recommendations.

Like him, I'm old school. :p

I thought about doing that, but there's like six user accounts on the computer. All of the malware has been successfully removed. I'll install an anti keylogger for good measures.

This is what I was looking for, thanks.

I cannot believe I forgot about "msconfig". I was using "services.msc" which is kind of unforgiving. So, I used msconfig and hide all Microsoft services, disabled everything except the AV and the PC is running much better. I haven't used msconfig in so long, I forgot it even included services

+1 on Black Viper's settings...Old School. I've always used his 'tweaked' column without incident.

Best,

LC

You should just know which services to set to manual, there are a ton of them, starting with xp. The time service is the first one... unless you set it up properly, just disable it. Then remote registry, I don't need anyone else messing with my registry... disable, I don't use themes, disable, there are a few others too, then things like adobe update service, not needed, disable... it's not that hard to figure out what you can disable, or at least put to manual.
Edit: if you need suggestions, get The Ultimate Troubleshooter, not free, but it will show you how to do much of this.