Now Let's run through a list of all the services that should be present by default in a Windows XP Service Pack 2 computer. Compare your own list of services to this one to find out what additional services (if any) are present on your system.

Please note that if you have more services than are listed here (and you will), it doesn't mean that these extra services are harmful or shouldn't be present on your system. Many third party software programs create and run their own Windows services as part of their normal operation. Antivirus software is one great example of this, as Norton's antivirus suite creates several additional services when it is installed.

If you are unsure about a specific service or process and the information provided in the services.msc window is of no use, try a web search using that service or process's name.

Windows XP Service Pack 2 Default Services List

Alerter
Application Layer Gateway Service
Application Management
Automatic Updates
BackgroundIntelligentTransferService
ClipBook
COM+ Event System
COM+ System Application
Computer Browser
Cryptographic Services
DCOM Server Process Launcher
DHCP Client
Distributed Link Tracking Client
Distributed Transaction Coordinator
DNS Client
Error Reporting Service
Event Log
Fast User Switching Compatibility
HTTP SSL
Help and Support
Human Interface Device Access
IMAPI CD-Burning COM Service
Indexing Service
Windows Firewall/Internet Connection Sharing *Formerly known as Internet Connection Firewall / Internet Connection Sharing
IPSEC Services
Logical Disk Manager
LogicalDiskManagerAdministrativeService
Messenger
MS Software Shadow Copy Provider
Net Logon
NetMeetingRemoteDesktopSharing
Network Connections
Network DDE
Network DDE DSDM
Network Location Awareness (NLA)
Network Provisioning Service
NT LM Security Support Provider
Performance Logs and Alerts
Plug and Play
Portable Media Serial Number Service *previously 'Portable Media Serial Number'
Print Spooler
Protected Storage
QoS RSVP
RemoteAccessAutoConnectionManager
Remote Access Connection Manager
Remote Desktop Help Session Manager
RemoteProcedureCall(RPC)
Remote Procedure Call (RPC) Locator
Remote Registry
Removable Storage
Routing and Remote Access
Secondary Logon
Security Accounts Manager
Security Center
Server
Shell Hardware Detection
Smart Card *Incorporates the 'smart card helper' service post-SP2
SSDP Discovery Service
System Event Notification
System Restore Service
Task Scheduler
TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper Service
Telephony
Telnet
Terminal Services
Themes
Uninterruptible Power Supply
Universal Plug and Play Device Host
Volume Shadow Copy
WebClient
Windows Audio
Windows Firewall / Internet Connection Sharing
Windows Image Acquisition (WIA)
Windows Installer
Windows Management Instrumentation
Windows Management Instrumentation Driver Extension
Windows Time
Wireless Zero Configuration
WMI Performance Adapter
Workstation

What services can I disable for better performance/security?

In the last part of this article, we're going to look at what services you can do without, depending on what you want to do with your system. We play with services a lot here in the PCSTATS test labs, since our benchmarking machines for videocards, motherboards and memory are considerably tweaked for the best possible performance, which means disabling a bunch of services.

As far as security is concerned, Windows XP Service Pack 2 went a long way towards making XP a much more secure environment, and that included locking down several previously active services. If you've already got SP2 (and if you haven't, you should), there's actually very little additional security tweaking that needs to be done to the services list.