"Services" Which Ones Are Safe To Turn Off ?

I have another rule of thumb to offer here - ignore relentlessly anyone who tells you 'don't touch what you don't understand' and just bump until you get a proper answer. Good luck in your efforts to find out what's going on on your PC.

I attach a full list of all services running, disabled, manual, etc. on my system, which runs fine. You can also disable bluetooth services and the like if you aren't using the hardware. A lot of services can be set to to 'manual' startup and if some device or software needs those services they should start when opening the software. If not, be aware that you may have to start them yourself, and remember to check your services any time you have a problem.

Lot's of info on services can be found here: Black Viper's Windows 10 Service Configurations - Black Viper | BlackViper.Com

Some of that info is a little out of date, but what is there is generally still accurate and useful, especially as MS, intell, etc. make it so hard to swat up on this stuff.

I'm constantly discovering new services which can be safely disabled. The last one's were ICLS and IME. The below serves as a good example of a service that is poorly documented and hard to research, and how to check whether you need a service running on your system or not.

ICLS is part of the Intel Management Engine. Few outside of Intel/MS seem to know what exactly it does, since no documentation has been released about it and they generally keep what it does under wraps.

Intel Management Engine - Wikipedia

What I do know is that it runs in he background and can do stuff behind the scenes like install drivers/software, change configurations, is accused of being a security/privacy backdoor, and has security vulnerabilities.

I don't even have the iCLS service on my system since I didn't install the driver that installs it. System tweakers seem to generally regard it as garbage and disable anything to do with the IME. I also have disabled the whole IME, as well as the intel HDCP and intel HECI services. My system runs fine without any of them.

Since intel claims it helps CPU performance to have this stuff, what you could do is keep it running for a test (perhaps run Snappy Driver Origin installer or similar and allow it to instal the latest ICLS driver), make sure the IME is running (in device manager > system devices), then do a CPU and GPU performance/bench-marking test. Then disable all of it and do the test again to see if there's any difference on your system. If not, disable them all.

My system services config:

ActiveX Installer (AxInstSV) Disabled
Agent Activation Runtime_7cdfe Manual
AllJoyn Router Service Disabled
App Readiness Disabled
Application Information Disabled
Application Layer Gateway Service Disabled
Application Management Disabled
AppX Deployment Service (AppXSVC) Disabled
AssignedAccessManager Service Disabled
Auto Time Zone Updater Disabled
AVCTP service Disabled
Background Intelligent Transfer Service Disabled
Background Tasks Infrastructure Service Automatic
Base Filtering Engine Automatic
BitLocker Drive Encryption Service Disabled
Block Level Backup Engine Service Disabled
Bluetooth Audio Gateway Service Disabled
Bluetooth Support Service Disabled
Bluetooth User Support Service_7cdfe Manual
Capability Access Manager Service Disabled
CaptureService_7cdfe Manual
Cellular Time Disabled
Client License Service (ClipSVC) Manual
Clipboard User Service_7cdfe Manual
CNG Key Isolation Disabled
COM+ Event System Disabled
COM+ System Application Disabled
COMODO Internet Security Helper Service Automatic
COMODO Internet Security Protected Helper Service Automatic
COMODO Virtual Service Manager Manual
Connected Devices Platform Service Disabled
Connected Devices Platform User Service_7cdfe Automatic
ConsentUX_7cdfe Manual
Container Manager Service Disabled
CoreMessaging Automatic
Credential Manager Disabled
CredentialEnrollmentManagerUserSvc_7cdfe Manual
Cryptographic Services Disabled
Data Sharing Service Disabled
Data Usage Disabled
DCOM Server Process Launcher Automatic
Delivery Optimization Manual
Device Association Service Disabled
Device Install Service Disabled
Device Management Enrollment Service Disabled
Device Management Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) Push mes Disabled
Device Setup Manager Disabled
DeviceAssociationBroker_7cdfe Manual
DevicePicker_7cdfe Manual
DevicesFlow_7cdfe Manual
DevQuery Background Discovery Broker Disabled
DHCP Client Disabled
Diagnostic Execution Service Disabled
Diagnostic Policy Service Disabled
Diagnostic Service Host Disabled
Diagnostic System Host Disabled
DialogBlockingService Disabled
Display Enhancement Service Disabled
Display Policy Service Disabled
Distributed Link Tracking Client Disabled
Distributed Transaction Coordinator Disabled
DNS Client Automatic
Encrypting File System (EFS) Disabled
Enterprise App Management Service Manual
Extensible Authentication Protocol Disabled
Fax Disabled
File History Service Disabled
FileSyncHelper Disabled
Function Discovery Provider Host Disabled
Function Discovery Resource Publication Disabled
Geolocation Service Disabled
GraphicsPerfSvc Disabled
Group Policy Client Automatic
Host Guardian Client Service Disabled
Host Network Service Disabled
Human Interface Device Service Disabled
HV Host Service Disabled
Hyper-V Data Exchange Service Disabled
Hyper-V Guest Compute Service Disabled
Hyper-V Guest Service Interface Disabled
Hyper-V Guest Shutdown Service Disabled
Hyper-V Heartbeat Service Disabled
Hyper-V Host Compute Service Disabled
Hyper-V PowerShell Direct Service Disabled
Hyper-V Remote Desktop Virtualization Service Disabled
Hyper-V Time Synchronization Service Disabled
Hyper-V Virtual Machine Management Disabled
Hyper-V Volume Shadow Copy Requestor Disabled
IKE and AuthIP IPsec Keying Modules Disabled
Intel(R) Content Protection HDCP Service Disabled
Intel(R) Content Protection HECI Service Disabled
Intel(R) Graphics Command Center Service Disabled
Intel(R) HD Graphics Control Panel Service Disabled
Intel(R) Management Engine WMI Provider Registration Disabled
Intel(R) Storage Middleware Service Disabled
Intel(R) TPM Provisioning Service Disabled
Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) Disabled
IP Helper Disabled
IP Translation Configuration Service Disabled
IPsec Policy Agent Disabled
KtmRm for Distributed Transaction Coordinator Disabled
Language Experience Service Disabled
Link-Layer Topology Discovery Mapper Disabled
Local Profile Assistant Service Disabled
Local Session Manager Automatic
MessagingService_7cdfe Manual
Microsoft (R) Diagnostics Hub Standard Collector Service Disabled
Microsoft Account Sign-in Assistant Disabled
Microsoft App-V Client Disabled
Microsoft Cloud Identity Service Disabled
Microsoft Edge Update Service (edgeupdate) Disabled
Microsoft Edge Update Service (edgeupdatem) Disabled
Microsoft iSCSI Initiator Service Disabled
Microsoft Keyboard Filter Disabled
Microsoft Office Click-to-Run Service Disabled
Microsoft Passport Manual
Microsoft Passport Container Manual
Microsoft Software Shadow Copy Provider Disabled
Microsoft Storage Spaces SMP Disabled
Microsoft Windows SMS Router Service. Disabled
Natural Authentication Disabled
Net.Tcp Port Sharing Service Disabled
Netlogon Disabled
Network Connected Devices Auto-Setup Disabled
Network Connection Broker Disabled
Network Connections Disabled
Network Connectivity Assistant Disabled
Network List Service Disabled
Network Location Awareness Disabled
Network Setup Service Disabled
Network Store Interface Service Disabled
Network Virtualization Service Disabled
NVIDIA Display Container LS Disabled
Offline Files Disabled
OneDrive Updater Service Disabled
OpenSSH Authentication Agent Disabled
Optimize drives Disabled
Parental Controls Disabled
Payments and NFC/SE Manager Disabled
Peer Name Resolution Protocol Disabled
Peer Networking Grouping Disabled
Peer Networking Identity Manager Disabled
Performance Counter DLL Host Disabled
Performance Logs & Alerts Disabled
Phone Service Disabled
Plug and Play Disabled
PNRP Machine Name Publication Service Disabled
Portable Device Enumerator Service Disabled
Power Disabled
Print Spooler Disabled
Printer Extensions and Notifications Disabled
PrintWorkflow_7cdfe Manual
Problem Reports Control Panel Support Disabled
Program Compatibility Assistant Service Disabled
Quality Windows Audio Video Experience Disabled
Radio Management Service Disabled
Recommended Troubleshooting Service Disabled
Remote Access Auto Connection Manager Disabled
Remote Access Connection Manager Disabled
Remote Procedure Call (RPC) Automatic
Remote Procedure Call (RPC) Locator Disabled
Remote Registry Disabled
Routing and Remote Access Disabled
RPC Endpoint Mapper Automatic
Secondary Logon Disabled
Secure Socket Tunneling Protocol Service Disabled
Security Accounts Manager Disabled
Sensor Data Service Disabled
Sensor Monitoring Service Disabled
Sensor Service Disabled
Server Disabled
Shell Hardware Detection Disabled
SNMP Trap Disabled
Software Protection Automatic
Spot Verifier Disabled
SSDP Discovery Disabled
State Repository Service Manual
Still Image Acquisition Events Disabled
Storage Service Disabled
Storage Tiers Management Disabled
Sync Host_7cdfe Manual
SysMain Disabled
System Event Notification Service Disabled
System Events Broker Automatic
System Guard Runtime Monitor Broker Manual
Task Scheduler Automatic
TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper Disabled
Telephony Disabled
TermService Disabled
Themes Disabled
Time Broker Manual
TunnelBear Maintenance Disabled
Udk User Service_7cdfe Manual
Update Orchestrator Service Disabled
UPnP Device Host Disabled
User Data Storage_7cdfe Manual
User Experience Virtualization Service Disabled
User Manager Disabled
User Profile Service Disabled
Virtual Disk Disabled
Volume Shadow Copy Disabled
Wacom Professional Service Disabled
WalletService Disabled
WarpJITSvc Disabled
Web Account Manager Disabled
WebClient Disabled
Wi-Fi Direct Services Connection Manager Service Disabled
Windows Audio Disabled
Windows Audio Endpoint Builder Disabled
Windows Backup Disabled
Windows Biometric Service Disabled
Windows Camera Frame Server Disabled
Windows Connect Now - Config Registrar Disabled
Windows Connection Manager Disabled
Windows Defender Firewall Automatic
Windows Encryption Provider Host Service Disabled
Windows Error Reporting Service Disabled
Windows Event Collector Disabled
Windows Event Log Disabled
Windows Font Cache Service Disabled
Windows Image Acquisition (WIA) Disabled
Windows Installer Manual
Windows License Manager Service Disabled
Windows Management Instrumentation Disabled
Windows Management Service Disabled
Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service Disabled
Windows Mobile Hotspot Service Disabled
Windows Modules Installer Disabled
Windows Presentation Foundation Font Cache 3.0.0.0 Disabled
Windows Push Notifications System Service Disabled
Windows Push Notifications User Service_7cdfe Automatic
Windows Search Disabled
Windows Time Disabled
Windows Update Disabled
Windows Update Medic Service Disabled
Windscribe Service Disabled
WinHTTP Web Proxy Auto-Discovery Service Manual
Wired AutoConfig Disabled
WLAN AutoConfig Disabled
WMI Performance Adapter Disabled
Work Folders Disabled
Workstation Disabled
WWAN AutoConfig Disabled