Cool Down Your Windows 7 and Windows 8 Laptop With A Few Clicks!

I'm sure everyone hates a hot laptop as much as I do.  I've gone to the extreme end of things to cool my laptops down. I won't bore you with details about those (yet), but inform you of one Windows service that lights a fire underneath your laptop... and how to kill it.






One service that I've always found to be a culprit of helping a laptop generate excess heat is Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service.  If you don't use Media Player to share within a home network, disable it.  It's a ram hog, Wifi card torch and disabling it really helps with system stability, as well as, heat reduction... Just performance in general is increased because there aren't as many resources devoted to this problematic service.  There are a couple different ways to do this.  Your method will depend on whether you're using Windows 7 or Windows 8.   I'll describe how to get to Services for either operating system, then I'll describe what actions we need to perform.  After you've arrived in the Services window the process is the same.

For Windows 7, click on the Windows Start icon.  In the search box, type Service.  In the window above the search box, you'll see Services with a gear icon next to it.  Select that one.

For Windows 8, right click on your task bar and open task manager.  On the right side of the Task Manager window you'll see Services.  Open it, and right click on WMPNetworkSvc, and select Open Services.

Now that we've arrived in the Services window, you'll scroll down towards the bottom to find Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service (WMPNetworkSvc). 
Right click on this service and select "Stop".  
Now, right click on this service again, select "Properties," and then click the drop-down menu next to "StartUp Type" or Start Type".  
Select Disable.  
In the lower right hand corner of the main Services window, select Apply.

You'll begin to notice a cooler laptop immediately.  Once again, disabling this service aids in performance and stability.  You're good to go! Hope this helps. This is for Windows 7 and Windows 8/8.1.  Not tested on any other system.

Post any issues you have, though there shouldn't be any.  I've disabled this service on EVERY pc I've touched.  

Adios,

Nathan