Step 2: Disable Unnecessary Services

Any services which are not needed for your day-to-day use should be disabled. By disabling or removing these services, viruses have less avenues of attack and you have fewer services to maintain through patch updates.

Note: Be sure to work with your departmental computing administrator as you adjust or shut off services on your machine. Some of these services may be in use by departments for automatic patching or backups.

Note: Before you begin, see the Definitions document for a list of services that can typically be turned off.

To view and disable the services that are running on your machine, follow these steps:

1. Select Start > Control Panel.
2. In the left panel, click Classic View.
3. In the Control Panel window, double-click Administrative Tools and then Services.
4. If the User Account Control window appears, click Continue.
5. Select the Standard tab and double-click the service you wish to disable (e.g. Themes). The Properties window for that service appears.
6. Choose the General tab.
7. From the Startup type: drop-down menu choose one of the following:
   • Automatic: This setting will start the service at boot time.
   • Manual: This setting allows Windows to start a service when needed.
   • Disabled: This setting will stop a service from starting, even if needed.
8. Click OK.
   
   
9. Repeat steps 5-8 for each service you want to disable.

Step 3: Use BitLocker Drive Encryption