About Processes revisited

[Guest]

Thank you rick and sharon for the info that you gave me. I'll try out the end
process on the half a dozen IEs that seem to sit there after time has passed.

Sharon a few questions about some things you mentioned:

I thought, as you said, when I got this new system, that I wouldn't have to
keep an eye on resources. I had more RAM and I had greater speed and things
just go zip zip zip. Still, one morning I was in the middle of a relaxing
activity at excite home page and had been called away from the computer. I
had never bothered to really look at the resources (or where I thought it was
before) while making my daily pilgrimage there. But while I was away, for
longer than expected, leaving the browsers up, my screen saver kicked in and
froze and this was the first time this had happened to me here on the new
system. I checked the task manager after rebooting and returning to the site
and activity and saw that the specific activity I was doing used 100% (EEK!)
of the CPU. Of course I hardly ever go there now in the morning anymore.
Still, that was when I tried to start understanding the performance readings.
Remember my brain is used to resources available and translating over from
how much cpu and page usage makes no sense to me. What made sense was I knew
that there were things that obviously used more resources up and caused
glitches in the smoothing running engine. My need now is to figure out what
equals what so I can conserve as well as re-energize the system without have
to do the reboot thing I used to have to do with WIN'98.

I agree, I will have to find out what each of those processes are and figure
out which I don't need running all the time. It is an alarming list for sure.
And so too is the startup list which when I tried to edit it by going in as I
did with '98, XP took exception with my decision to not let yahoo or some
other messenger or program open into my system trey when turning on the
computer. I have not yet been able to figure out XP's way of allowing this to
be done.

Where can I find out what each process means and how important it is to have
running? I've tried to only have my anti-virus and firewall along with dsl
and volume control be the only things sitting in my sys tray at opening. I
shut down anything that I don't need.

Thank you again for your help.

silk

 

[Sharon F]

And so too is the startup list which when I tried to edit it by going in as I
did with '98, XP took exception with my decision to not let yahoo or some
other messenger or program open into my system trey when turning on the
computer. I have not yet been able to figure out XP's way of allowing this to
be done.

Sometimes you have better luck changing startup behavior in a program's own
menus. Open the main program (yahoo messenger) and look in its menus for
options that control startup behavior. If unable to find, check the
program's help file for directions.

Where can I find out what each process means and how important it is to have
running? I've tried to only have my anti-virus and firewall along with dsl
and volume control be the only things sitting in my sys tray at opening. I
shut down anything that I don't need.

It will take a bit of detective work to find out what everything is. Places
to look for clues:

Sometimes using search will uncover a program folder that indicates
application a file belongs to.

A file's properties may have that information.

A search in the registry may show a file's name in a program branch.
Websites that maintain lists of known startup programs. These sites are not
all inclusive so you may need to check more than one before finding a
particular item. One site that I like is
http://www.answersthatwork.com/Tasklist_pages/tasklist.htm

Ask in the groups: Someone may have already done the footwork on a
particular item and will take the time to fill you in on what they've
discovered.

 

[Guest]

Thank you Sharon for your further recommendations. I will be looking into the
startup in the individual programs. I made a list of currently running
processes and eliminated a great many to research that were found on the link
you gave me. It is an extremely informative site, thank you. I noted that
many of the recommendations from the site for disabling things which do not
need to be running all the time referred me to "the ultimate troubleshooter"
which I am not sure if it is already on my system or not. If it isn't, it is
obvious that I can purchase it from the site the link leads to. Can you tell
me if this is something which is part of XP or not?

While there are still five processes I have been unable to identify and will
research further, there is one I wanted to ask if you knew anything about: It
is something called "SearchUpgrader" and while I am fairly sure it isn't part
of XP, I wanted to be sure I am not confusing this with SP2's auto updates.
My firewall asks me daily to allow this program to access the internet but
since I'm unsure if it is part of SP2's auto updates or not, I have denied it
until I can find further info on it. The auto updater I've only seen a few
times in the sys trey. I wasn't sure if this is something which my firewall
would even require my authority to run.

Silk

 

[Frank Saunders, MS-MVP]

While there are still five processes I have been unable to identify
and will research further, there is one I wanted to ask if you knew
anything about: It is something called "SearchUpgrader" and while I
am fairly sure it isn't part of XP, I wanted to be sure I am not
confusing this with SP2's auto updates. My firewall asks me daily to
allow this program to access the internet but since I'm unsure if it
is part of SP2's auto updates or not, I have denied it until I can
find further info on it. The auto updater I've only seen a few times
in the sys trey. I wasn't sure if this is something which my firewall
would even require my authority to run.

Silk

First eliminate any scumware.
CAUTION!!!!! Before you try to remove spyware using any of these programs ,
download a copy of LSPFIX from any of the following sites:
http://www.cexx.org/lspfix.htm
http://www.spychecker.com/program/winsockxpfix.html
(if your OS is Win2k or XP) The process of removing certain malware may kill
your internet connection. If this should occur, this program, LSPFIX, will
enable you to regain your connection.

See
Dealing with Unwanted Malware, Parasites, Toolbars and Search Engines
http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/unwanted.htm

Note that AdAware and SpyBot S & D will each catch some things the other
won't. Also, each needs to be updated with the program's update function
before every use, even when just downloaded. There's also a lot more to do
than just those two programs. CWShredder is also available here:
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/regs_edits/cwshredder.zip
**Post your HijackThis log to
http://forums.spywareinfo.com/ or the Spyware forum at
http://forum.aumha.org/ for expert analysis, not here.**
Alternative download pages for Ad-Aware, Spybot, HijackThis and CWShredder
may be found on this page:
http://aumha.org/a/parasite.htm.


See this link for information about malware:
http://arstechnica.com/articles/paedia/malware.ars

If nothing there helps, please post back to this thread.

--
Frank Saunders, MS-MVP, IE/OE
Please respond in Newsgroup only. Do not send email
http://www.fjsmjs.com
Protect your PC
http://www.microsoft.com./athome/security/protect/default.aspx

 

[Sharon F]

I noted that
many of the recommendations from the site for disabling things which do not
need to be running all the time referred me to "the ultimate troubleshooter"
which I am not sure if it is already on my system or not. If it isn't, it is
obvious that I can purchase it from the site the link leads to. Can you tell
me if this is something which is part of XP or not?

"The ultimate troubleshooter" is not a part of Windows. Am wondering if
this is a recent addition to that site since I've never noticed it before
(or it's been there and I ignored it ). Apparently this is something
they sell and I can't vouch for the program as I've never tried it. It may
be a great program (or not) but this type of software is not something I
would purchase. Once you get your startup sorted, it will pretty much stay
consistent. Maintenance is a simple matter of checking in on MSCONFIG once
in a while and then making minor adjustments only when necessary.

It
is something called "SearchUpgrader" and while I am fairly sure it isn't part
of XP, I wanted to be sure I am not confusing this with SP2's auto updates.

Not a part of Windows and possibly the cause of your performance problems.
See Frank's response for how to deal with this item.

ASIDE: While reading about that "ultimate troubleshooter" I see they claim
65% of computer problems are due to background processes. I've read
otherwise: Error reports coming through Microsoft's tech support channels
are indicating that ~65% is due to spyware, adware, foistware, and other
intrusive installations. I guess these things could be classified as
background processes (you often come across hints of their existence while
checking startup items) but they are a special group that need to be
handled differently than your typical startup item.