Turn off some system services to improve Windows XP security

Improving system security involves many aspects, one of the important steps is to turn off unnecessary services. Although Microsoft Windows XP is not a network operating system, the default is that many of its services are open. For a sober Microsoft user, shutting down some unwanted services is an important aspect of security.

Of course, each version of Windows offers a different service, so services that are disabled in one system for security purposes may only be available for a specific version. Therefore, the list of services discussed in this article may apply only to specific versions of XP. However, the content discussed in this article can provide guidelines for users to examine services on other systems.

1.IIS: Microsoft's Internet Information Service (IIS) provides the ability to turn a user's computer into a Web server. This service can be closed by opening Control Panel, finding Add or Remove Programs, clicking Add/Remove Windows components, and deselect Internet Information Services (IIS).

2.NetMeeting Remote Desktop Sharing: Network conferencing is primarily a Windows platform for VoIP and video conferencing clients, although this service is only required for Remote Desktop access.

3. Remote Desktop Assistance Session Manager (DESKTOP): This service allows other people to remotely access your system to help you solve problems.

4. Remote registry: This ability is pretty scary from a security standpoint. Because it allows remote users to edit the Windows registry.

5. Routers and Remote Access services: This service encompasses a variety of capabilities that most system administrators may need to provide separately. Any of these services are necessary for a typical desktop system, such as XP, but they need to be shut down as a separate service. Routing and Remote Access provides a capability to use the system as a router and NAT device, either as a dial-up access gateway or as a VPN server. If you don't want the device to perform this function, you can disable it entirely.

6. Simple File sharing: If a computer is not part of a Microsoft Windows domain, all file shares can be accessed from anywhere by default. In the real world, however, we only want to provide sharing to specific, authorized users. In the same way, simple file sharing is the only way to allow sharing to be made available to all users, and this is not the original purpose of sharing a file system. By default, this feature is active in the Professional and home editions of Windows XP. However, it cannot be disabled in the Home Edition. In the Professional edition, this is the way to turn it off: Open the My Computer/Tools menu/Folder Options/View tab, and deselect use Simple File Sharing (recommended) under Advanced settings.

7.SSDP Discovery Service: Also known as the Simple Service discovery service, which is used to discover UPnP devices on the network, "Universal Plug and Play device host Universal Plug and Device host" requires this service. As shown in figure:

8.Telnet (telnet): Telnet service is an old mechanism that provides remote access to a single computer. Now, it's rare to use Telnet to remotely manage a system, instead of a cryptographic protocol that is SSH. Remote logins are therefore completely disabled.

9.Universal Plug and Play Device host: That is, the "Universal Plug-ins host" service, although many users installed the service in the system, is not very practical.

10.Windows Messenger Service: Messenger, which provides the function of "network send" and "alarm". It is independent of the instant Messaging client and can therefore be disabled.

On your system, these services may not be all turned on or installed. Whether a particular service is installed or running depends on the choice of installing the system, whether you are running an XP Home or Professional Edition.

In addition to the simple file sharing described above, all other services can be disabled in the same way. The easiest way to do this is to turn on the Control Panel/Administrative Tools/services/To disable a service in the list, double-click on it, select startup type in the pop-up window and click Stop to completely turn off a service. In general, a user should set a service to a "disabled" state for the sake of security. Right-click the Select attribute on a service, select "Disabled" in the Drop-down list in the pop-up window, and click OK. If a user is confused about whether a service is serving another service, click the Dependencies tab in the window to view it.

Clearly, this list is not a complete list of users needing to disable services on their computers. The only services listed here are those that are most likely to be unwanted by the user, or that can cause some security vulnerabilities to the system if they run. Of course, there are some other services that will not have negative consequences, but before you disable a service, it is best to study it, need to clear its functionality, dependencies, the consequences of the cessation, and make sure that you really do not need this service. Keep in mind: some important services are important to the normal functioning of the system, such as remote Procedure call (RPC) services.

We can say that each running but unused service is a security vulnerability on the computer. If a service is not important to authorized users and basic system functionality, you need to close it.