Can anyone refer me to any docs which explains which vista services are safe to turn off and what are the best practices for its deployment.

Well it actually it is a matter of personal choice and the type of environment your program is in... for example if you have your own firewall and antivirus..its safe to turn off windows firewall service and windows defender... or if you dont use terminal services you can disable them...also if you dont use bitlocker feature you can turn off bitlocker service and also the TPM service... also you can turn off the windows aero feature service if you dont want to use it... however there are some services which you can turn off easily without harming your system performance...below is a link which may help you: http://theshacklocks.com/blog/?p=85 also follow the below link for more info... http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/startups/ and the final link below to detail you on it... http://www.blackviper.com/ hope this is helpful..if not please do post back...Regards, KOWSHAL H.M. a.k.a W@R10CK