Automatically Enable/Disable services and Start-Up items in Windows XP

Question

Is there a way to have "profiles" of services and startup items in XP. So I can reboot into an XP with my virusscanner enabled, and reboot with it disabled (not having to manually go into services and msconfig.) And other such items?

Answer 1

Absolutely. You can setup what Microsoft calls "Hardware Profiles" (which is designed more towards laptops being docked & un-docked). With each "Hardware Profile" you can enable/disable services & also enable/disable hardware. The down-side... is that it requires a reboot to do the transition between each profile.

More info can be found here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/225810

Answer 2

You can do this via batch script without even needing to restart your computer. Look into the the sc.exe program included with windows. You can use it to start and stop services, as well as configure them to run automatic, manual, disabled, and a whole lot more. Here's the docs on how to use it:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc754599.aspx

Note that the breadcrumb trail at the top of the linked page mentions windows server, but it works in XP, Vista, and 7 as well. Remember that you need to be administrator to change services.