If so, how? What else can I disable or streamline such that my LWF takes up even less local resources?
another tracks : - if you are on 4.2, try the 4.2 Universalforwarder, that is minimalistic. - be very specific in your path to monitor to reduce the number of path to check. (event before using white or blacklisting)
This was discussed here and some pretty good information as given out:
http://answers.splunk.com/questions/10044/reducing-a-light-forwarders-footprint-using-a-config-file
If it is windows light forwarder, you can also specifically disable the scripted inputs for wmi and regmon in system/default. This will remove two extra processes, but splunkd is still the heavy.
Just a minor improvement, but you can disable (or delete) the sample app.