In DOS, nothing ran in the background when you were running aprogram.
Then Windows came along, and we had something new..... SERVICES.
I first discovered them in Windows XP. And I realized almost immediately that many of those SERVICES were redundant. (not required for the average user)
So I set about disabling all the services that I didn't need running all the time. Gee! My PC speeded up considerably!
I found a listing on the "Black Viper" website, of every SERVICE and which ones can be safely disabled for the average user PC.
I promptly disabled 24 services for Windows XP. I put that in a batch file, so I could repeat it, in just a few seconds.
That was continued to Windows 7 and now to Windows 8.
Most of what works well for Windows 7, will also work for Windows 8 or even 8.1.
They are not all that different. The registries are almost identical.
I'm still using my Windows 7 tweaks for Windows 8 and it works, just fine. Go figure!
Windows 7 and Windows 8 are more alike than MS wants you to know. (Big Secret)
Cheers Mates!
TM