Are all these processes needed?

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Looking at "Windows Task Manager" in Windows XP Home, with no applications
running, reveals between 65 and 74 Processes running (in the background?).
Their total memory usage is about 220MB. Some of the processes I recognize
but most I don't. No wonder startup takes so long. Are all of these really
needed? If not, which ones can be shut down or disabled upon startup? Which
processes are absolutely needed as a minimum? Is there a website that
explains what these processes are, what they do and if they can safely be
disabled?
 
http://www.liutilities.com/products/wintaskspro/processlibrary/

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Replied To :
-------------------------------------------------------------

| Looking at "Windows Task Manager" in Windows XP Home, with no
applications
| running, reveals between 65 and 74 Processes running (in the
background?).
| Their total memory usage is about 220MB. Some of the processes I
recognize
| but most I don't. No wonder startup takes so long. Are all of these
really
| needed? If not, which ones can be shut down or disabled upon startup?
Which
| processes are absolutely needed as a minimum? Is there a website that
| explains what these processes are, what they do and if they can safely
be
| disabled?
 
Is this a home computer. 65-74 does seem a bit high.

Which ones do you think might be uninvited guests?

What anti-spyware programmes are you using?

Task Manager is useful but you could look at another freeware utility
Process Explorer, which provides similar information but adds that
little bit extra towards seeing what the running processes represent.

For further information about Process Explorer see here:

http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/procexp.shtml

To ascertain which service is causing the problem select the
image name producing the high CPU usage, right click,
select Properties, Services. Note there are the full names and some
explanation of what each service does.

You will find further information on Services here:
http://www.theeldergeek.com/services_guide.htm

To trace the particular Service involved you need to turn off each
service in turn and then restore it noting what effect it has on CPU
usage. However, you need to take care and watch what other Services are
dependent on that service. When you click on the Dependencies tab allow
it a little time to display the information.

--

Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England

Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
PSRumbagh said:
Looking at "Windows Task Manager" in Windows XP Home, with no
applications running, reveals between 65 and 74 Processes running (in
the background?).


That's a little on the high side, but it's not necessarily an enormous
number. I think you should be concerned, not with how many are there, but
*which* (see below).

Their total memory usage is about 220MB. Some of
the processes I recognize but most I don't. No wonder startup takes
so long.

Are all of these really needed? If not, which ones can be
shut down or disabled upon startup?


Since you haven't told us their names, it's very difficult for anyone to
answer that question.


Which processes are absolutely
needed as a minimum?


I think that's very much the wrong question. The question should be "which
of these do something that I find valuable and am willing to devote some cpu
cycles to?"

You say "No wonder startup takes so long." How long does it take? Here's my
standard post on slow startup:

My personal view is that the attention many people pay to how long it takes
to boot is unwarranted. Assuming that the computer's speed is otherwise
satisfactory, it may not be worth worrying about. Most people start their
computers once a day or even less frequently. In the overall scheme of
things, even a few minutes to start up isn't very important. Personally I
power on my computer when I get up in the morning, then go get my coffee.
When I come back, it's done booting. I don't know how long it took to boot
and I don't care.

However if you do want to address it, it may be because of what programs
start automatically, and you may want to stop some of them from starting
that way. On each program you don't want to start automatically, check its
Options to see if it has the choice not to start (make sure you actually
choose the option not to run it, not just a "don't show icon" option). Many
can easily and best be stopped that way. If that doesn't work, run MSCONFIG
from the Start | Run line, and on the Startup tab, uncheck the programs you
don't want to start automatically.

However, if I were you, I wouldn't do this just for the purpose of running
the minimum number of programs. Despite what many people tell you, you
should be concerned, not with how *many* of these programs you run, but
*which*. Some of them can hurt performance severely, but others have no
effect on performance.

Don't just stop programs from running willy-nilly. What you should do is
determine what each program is, what its value is to you, and what the cost
in performance is of its running all the time. You can get more information
about these at http://castlecops.com/StartupList.html. If you can't find it
there, try google searches and ask about specifics here.

Once you have that information, you can make an intelligent informed
decision about what you want to keep and what you want to get rid of.
 
PSRumbagh said:
Looking at "Windows Task Manager" in Windows XP Home, with no
applications
running, reveals between 65 and 74 Processes running (in the
background?).
Their total memory usage is about 220MB. Some of the processes I
recognize
but most I don't. No wonder startup takes so long. Are all of these
really
needed? If not, which ones can be shut down or disabled upon startup?
Which
processes are absolutely needed as a minimum? Is there a website that
explains what these processes are, what they do and if they can safely
be
disabled?

I have 23 on one and 20 on another. 70 processes running seems really
high.
<http://www.liutilities.com/products/wintaskspro/processlibrary/>
This web page will help to sort this out. This will be tedious, but in
my opinion
worth the time.
 
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