http://grc.com/freepopular.htm

A friend of ours who is a tech recomended the decombubulator & installed it on my puter last time hw was here. I am curious if any of this other stuff is worth using. Thank You

well, if you know the service can be turned off and have no need for it, go to start>run>type
services.msc and set it's startup type to disabled. third party utilities are nice for people that have to have a interface guide them through things...but they take up space, can cause conflicts with updates MS and security programs recieve, and usually only have one or two uses.I usually dont advice disabling services in forums because turns out they did have a need for it for something they forgot to mention.

In addition to the comments made by Phantom, browse to the following link iro Windows XP Home and Professional Service Pack 2 Service Configurations. NOTE: An * (asterisk) indicates changes from Service Pack 1a to Service Pack 2.

Excellent information regarding every XP Home and Professional Service, however, if you wish to 'tweak' your services, read Black Viper's Disclaimer first and pay particular attention to dependencies, prior to modifying/disabling any service: -

http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm