I have had a couple of things gone missing I believe stolen in my shared apartment and want to run my laptop constantly with a webcam attached, running webcam surveillance software to record/ take pictures when motion is sensed.

Id like to take whatever steps are necessary to be able to run the laptop constantly without the fan coming on, as its quite loud and even though it will be hidden it can be heard.

Thus Id like to know what steps I can take to reduce CPU to the bare minimum for the laptop to boot up and run the camera software and send images via ftp / email when necessary.

I have windows 7 installed, though I can reinstall it clean. Which are the windows services can I turn off, and more extreme disabling or measures of whatever kind which I can take. The OS would need to run the camera, wifi / networking.

Thanks very much for any help.