Thinkpads Forum

i've gone through the services running on my system, and checked them with http://www.blackviper.com
is anyone else using blackviper's suggestions or settings?

these are services that i've chosen to take off automatic, some i sent to manual, some to disable, and it seems i can still do the things i need to do with my computer, but my concern is, are any of the following going to open some sort of security hole for virus's, spyware, junk, etc?


Application Layer Gateway Service
Application Management
Ati HotKey Poller
Background Intelligent Transfer Service
COM+ Event System
Distributed Link Tracking Client
Help and Support
HTTP SSL
Infrared Monitor
Intel® PROSet/Wireless Event Log
Intel® PROSet/Wireless WiFi Service
Logical Disk Manager
Remote Registry
Shell Hardware Detection
SSDP Discovery Service
System Restore Service
System Update
Task Scheduler
TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper
Telnet
Themes
ThinkVantage Registry Monitor Service
TVT Backup Protection Service
TVT Backup Service
TVT Scheduler
WebClient
Workstation

I hope you are aware of the fact that some things, with high probability, won´t work properly (in particular most of the TVT software, where it would make IMO much more sense to uninstall it rather than apply these "tweaks").

i also wanted to add that, in the past i've gotten my commit charge to 220M after startup, with all the software i was wanted, working.
now it's down to 350M after startup, which is kind of sh*t, but better than 450M+.

i don't use R&R for making backups, i don't trust it, and prefer to backup my data manually to a drive i that i rarely leave on or plugged in..
after having issues with the r&r predesktop software not working properly, even after doing a full recovery via recovery disks, it seems i was able to fix it by installing the latest version of r&r, so i figure it makes sense to keep it installed?
tvt backup and tvt backup protection seem to automatically set themselves back to automatic and started, and i'm not able to stop em.

i don't know what ThinkVantage Registry Monitor Service does.
based on googling and unanswered forum questions, it seems no one else really does either.

If you have created any recovery CDs after the first start of the machine (i.e. if needed, such set of recovery CDs would allow you to restore the factory contents of your laptop including the hidden partition and the predesktop area) or purchased them from Lenovo, I would say get rid of all the R&R stuff (including the predesktop area and even the hidden partition). Since you don´t really need the whole R&R, I don´t see a reason why to keep it.

Cheers,

Marin

EDIT: Sorry, I forgot that you have XP SP3 ,changed the post accordingly...

i like keeping the hidden partition for a system recovery that can keep the partition i have on my primary drive, i have recovery CDs from 2006, but plan to make a new set, or on a dvd-r, with r&r 4, since the 2006 cds are with r&r3.
i'm sticking with xppro sp3, no plans to go to vista.

i think it's sad that wanting to have a simple functioning secure system has to take complicated efforts.

I agree. While I had XP installed, I was never lucky to make any version of R&R properly work with the predesktop area after I once broke R&R... I hope things in the R&R functionality have changed since. BTW, have you already performed the clean XP install, or you are still running your old setup?

i'm now on the clean setup.
the predesktop restore worked nicely to keep my partition,
but i messed that up with the corrupt avg7.5 from oldversion.com and had to do the recovery from recovery CDs,
and then remake my partition with ubuntu live cd.
then i did another recovery from the fixed predesktop, so that i could pick which softwares to leave out, another reason i'd like to have a working predesktop.