Any way to prioritize a service in XP Pro?

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56k For Life

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Anyone know of a way to prioritize a service in XP so that it is either the first service loaded upon startup or the last service to be ended on shutdown? Thanks in advance.
 
Gah, these kind of questions always beg the question: Why?

Anyways I know there is a way to set some services to critical, or mandatory (some spyware/virus do this), not sure what the exact term MS uses, but those are services that load in safe mode. Outside that, I'm not aware how to change their timings/load order.
 
Why you ask? Because there's certain hives that are left hanging during start-up and shut-down and I need to change the order in which my hive cleaner runs.
 
This is a service you've written yourself, then? When you register it, you want to show it as being dependent on another service. That will get you started earlier than that service.

I don't think there's a way to guarantee shutdown order.
 
mikeblas said:
This is a service you've written yourself, then? When you register it, you want to show it as being dependent on another service. That will get you started earlier than that service.

I don't think there's a way to guarantee shutdown order.
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Actually it's a little-known service that I found off of microsoft's website.

so I can make it dependent on any service at all? it doesnt matter which? and it will then load first?
 
56k For Life said:
Actually it's a little-known service that I found off of microsoft's website.

so I can make it dependent on any service at all? it doesnt matter which? and it will then load first?
Click to expand...

Are you referring to the User Profile Hive Cleanup service? AFAIK you shouldn't need to prioritize as it runs when needed.
 
56k For Life said:
so I can make it dependent on any service at all? it doesnt matter which? and it will then load first?
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A dependency between services causes the most depended service to load first, so that it can satisfy the needs of its dependents. It's just a simple dependency graph.

I don't think there's a way to adjust dependencies with the UI. I thought you were writing your own service; if that were the case, you'd specify the dependencies when calling the CreateService API.
 
Correct me if I'm wrong here, but isn't this hive cleanup thing only useful on a machine that has multiple users? This doesn't seem to have any use on a typical home machine.
 
56k For Life said:
it runs constantly as a service actually but I feel as though if it ran ahead of all the other services it would make my system even faster.
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From the link I provided:

Overview
On Windows 2000 the service deals with application event log event 1000 from source Userenv where the message indicates that the profile is not unloading and the error is "Access is denied". On Windows XP and Windows 2003 the equivalent events are 1517 and 1524 from source Userenv.

To accomplish this the service monitors for logged off users that still have hives loaded. When that happens the service determines which applications have handles opened to the hives and releases them. It logs the application name and what registry keys where left open. After this the system finishes unloading the profile.
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IOW, it only takes action when it detects a user logs off and still has open handles. It does nothing when logging in or starting up your computer.

I can't even fathom how your equating this "service" is in any way relevant to how fast your system will run.
 
SJConsultant said:
From the link I provided:



IOW, it only takes action when it detects a user logs off and still has open handles. It does nothing when logging in or starting up your computer.

I can't even fathom how your equating this "service" is in any way relevant to how fast your system will run.
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It is a service. it's even listed under Services in the control panel.

and before I installed the service, my system took nearly 8 minutes to boot. now it takes 1.5 minutes.
 
56k For Life said:
It is a service. it's even listed under Services in the control panel.

and before I installed the service, my system took nearly 8 minutes to boot. now it takes 1.5 minutes.
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I never said anything about it not being a service. While I can't explain your supposed decrease in boot times, I can tell you the service is related to logging off. While it does run as a service, it monitors for when a user logs off and only then does it actually "do" anything.

Additional reference:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;897101
 
56k For Life said:
It is a service. it's even listed under Services in the control panel.

and before I installed the service, my system took nearly 8 minutes to boot. now it takes 1.5 minutes.
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I'm not going to doubt your decrease in boot times, but seriously, if you read the links posted, this service has absolutely nothing to do with performance...especially on boot.

I'd like to be able to defend a fellow Philly guy, but your not giving me much to help with. This particular service is useless to about 99.9% of the users, and I wouldn't install it if someone paid me too.
 
SJConsultant said:
I never said anything about it not being a service. While I can't explain your supposed decrease in boot times, I can tell you the service is related to logging off. While it does run as a service, it monitors for when a user logs off and only then does it actually "do" anything.

Additional reference:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;897101
Click to expand...
It was causing it to stall on "Loading Your Personal Settings" during start-up for the same reason I believe as during shut-down. Regardless, this program somehow fixed the problem.
 
56k For Life said:
It was causing it to stall on "Loading Your Personal Settings" during start-up for the same reason I believe as during shut-down. Regardless, this program somehow fixed the problem.
Click to expand...

It may be concidental that after installing the service your boot times were magically "fixed" at the same time. But please take the time to read through the links and understand the service is related to logging off and not logging on.
 
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