Re: Tutorial: How to start/stop the print spooler service from an on/off icon on the Windows taskbar

On 12/30/2023 8:00 PM, Alan wrote:
> On 2023-12-30 10:14, Wally J wrote:
>> Tutorial:
>> How to start/stop the print spooler service from an on/off icon.
>>
>> For those who print sporadically, this information is helpful because it
>> allows them to maintain a lean machine (no services running all the time).
>>   <https://i.postimg.cc/mkLPrZpG/spooler01.jpg>
> 
> Because a service with nothing to do takes up SO much CPU time!
> 
> LOL
> 
> Or you could look at the fact that on macOS, the "cupsd" process 
> (that's Common Unix Printer Service Daemon) has used 0.23s of CPU ...in 26 DAYS of uptime.

At one time, a number of SVCHOST claimed they had used no cycles at all.
(Process Explorer, elevated to administrator, can measure a few things.
Usage is measured at the clock tick level, presumably via performance
counters in the CPU.)

You need to measure the stats on a SVCHOST, to determine whether it is
worth killing or not. For example, I checked now, and WUAUSERV is no longer
running and has been placed on manual. I didn't do that. I was going to use
it as a poster boy for bad behavior, and... they've turned it off.

To a first order approximation, in Windows today, you're not really
in control of the power usage. The machine has bad dining habits, and
you are not in control. If it decides it has a slug of measurements
to make, you just sit back... and listen to the fans. I can tell just
by the fan noise, "who is inside my machine".

My machine started its current life, idling at 58-60W. Then,
after a while, I was seeing 46W for no particular reason. I
added a new NIC to the PC, and today it idles at 36.8 watts
of mains power. The power dropped immediately, upon addition of
a new NIC! And it has a video card in it too, a gutless
1050Ti on which the fan does not spin, and currently it measures
30C on the GPU die. It's only a little bit warmer than the CPU,
and the fan blades don't move. It has to hug itself for warmth.

I would never, in a million years, have achieved results like that
on my own, by puttering around and killing SVCHOSTs that don't draw power.

It might have been AMD Ryzen Master, but I'm not using ECO mode in
there, and the program is on the computer purely for observational purposes.
That's a software which updates itself and doesn't ask permission,
so it's hard to say what it might have pulled in. You can see when it idles,
only Core 0 is running.

   [Picture]

    https://i.postimg.cc/253z3nyb/Ryzen-Master-Windows.gif

My power measurements are done on a Kill-O-Watt attached to the mains power plug.
Accurate to 1% or so. Can measure W and VA and PF. PSU is a Seasonic Bronze.

I don't really know for sure, what has made the improvements on my machine.
It wasn't me. It might not have been Microsoft, because I have no press release
that matches symptoms. Googling it (as usual) shows no useful policy announcements.

   Paul