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#21
Setting a service startup status to manual is not a safe alternative to disabling it. It would normally only be safe if the default state was manual. Otherwise it is doubtful.
When a service fails to start because a service it relies on is not running it will not go through a list of such services and attempt to start them. It will just fail. When an application or windows component fails because of a non running service it will typically just fail. Don't expect an error message identifying the service. Typically the cause of the failure is not known to the application. In many cases the developer isn't aware that a specific service is required. Considering that much about services is undocumented this should hardly be surprising.
When you set an autostart service to manual you take on the responsibility for starting it when necessary. Don't expect Windows or an application to do this for you. It may, but this is far from being a safe assumption.
I do have some experience with this. It cost me considerable time and effort and I do not wish to repeat the experience.