Processes in Task manager XP

[pvapour]

I currently have 52 - 58 processes running at any one time and I think the PCs performance is suffering because of it, so I'm trying to reduce the amout that are active as I'm sure I do not need half of them.....

trouble is i'm a bit useless with PCs and there is no way of me knowing what processes do what and if i just start shutting them down god only knows what i'll do

Is there some kind of facility within XP to manage these? through an optimum performance setting or something? or any way facility that tells me what programme each of the extesions / processes are linked to? so I can shut down the ones not needed....

thanks in advance

Nick

[Denis O]

Same as Nick. I've got 47 running of which most I have no clue about. I posted recently about how much Ram my machine was using with supposedly nothing running. Hopefully one of our resident experts can come up with a list of what is unecesary.

[Trooper2]

Have you run anti-virus and spy-ware scans recently? Try running the scans in Safe mode so hopefully any nastys will go away then and there.
Try typing the exact process names as found in task manager, into Google. That should get you information for most of them.

If you decide to turn off some start up items, they can be accessed by clicking START> Run, then typing msconfig into the dialog box and clicking OK to open the configuration utility. Then click on the Startup tab, and uncheck any items that you don't want to start with windows.

Happy hunting.

Edit to add: sorry guys but no such list exists, you'll have to Google for the processes.

>> Edited by Trooper2 on Saturday 5th November 17:38

[malman]

some of this crap will be stuff that appears by your clock in the bottom right of the taskbar.

e.g
winzip wizard
printer toolboxes
various - IM clients
real player
adobe acrobat quick start
an loads of other stuff that the programmer thought you would desperatley need access to at any given second so he better load it at startup an leave it there because his/hers is the best bit of software in the world so why wouldn't you want it running all of the time.

Can you tell this is one of my pet hates

Go through these mini (memory munching ) icons and see if they have a disable and don't reload option. Also look in Start -> Programs -> Startup and see if anything is in there. Otherwise check the sticky on the forum to see if someone has reccommended a startup cleaner utility (I do it by hand so don't know one off the top of my head).

[mcflurry]

I would recommend registry mechanic or system mechanic... both have free trials at www.download.com

[pvapour]

mcflurry said:

I would recommend registry mechanic or system mechanic... both have free trials at www.download.com

thx, actually got system mechanic / GTL / Ge force 7800 yesterday, have installed everything etc and all runs beautifully now

Thanks again

Nick

[FunkyNige]

Stick the process name into Google, there are a few sites out there which tell you what they all do No point naming the sites as it's quicker to search Google!

[rlk500]

You don't need to start downloading loads of stuff to sort this out. Start, run, MSCONFIG will start a little tool that shows what apps. are loaded at startup. Go to the startup tab and uncheck all the ones you don't recognise. Reboot your machine and see how it behaves. It is a non destructive process, so if you turn off things you do want just retsart MSCONFIG and tick the box against the relevant app.

HTH