Win "services"

[DrDanny]

Newbie here, but I'm not unschooled in the ways of software.

Why in the name of The Great Cosmic Muffin does Sony insist on installing so much code as system services instead of normal applications? (rhetorical question)

Since installing SS3 et al over the past 24 hours, I've seen the following crap added to my system, not counting all those auto-starting applications:

1. MD Simple Burner DB Access Service - mdrcdb.exe

2. MD Simple Burner Service - NetMDSB.exe

3. MSCSPTISRV (no description!) - MSCSPTISRV.exe

4. SonicStage SCSI Service - SSScsiSV.exe

5. Sony SPTI Service - SPTISRV.exe

Besides SS3, I installed the "mp3 conversion tool" and the "wav conversion tool"

That's an awful lot of stuff to have running all the time, just in case I want to do something with a single USB device, innit?

Does anyone besides the Sony engineers know

- what each one does?

- if I disable it, what breaks?

- if I set it to manual, what breaks?

- why aren't they just applications (oops! rhetorical)

I wonder if even they know.....

I'm beginning to think I shoulda saved up more $ and gotten an iRiver and used linux instead.