How do I know what programs are running in the background and how many programs should I have running in the Windows XP Home Edition background? Could that be the problem with my Sony Vaio (PCG-FRV25)?
Ed,
If you want to know more about the many processes running on your computer, get
Process Explorer (free) from
<
http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/procexp.shtml>. Provides way more
information than Task Manager. You can look at any process and see what modules
it contains, and who wrote or distributed each module.
For a good reference to the many system services (background processes), see
<
http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm>. For discussion about most
processes in general (what is each one, what does it do, is it necessary), just
type it in to your favorite search engine. Anything dangerous is probably being
discussed somewhere on the web.
And please don't contribute to the spread of email address mining viruses.
Learn to munge your email address properly, to keep yourself a bit safer when
posting to open forums. Protect yourself and the rest of the internet - never
post your address unmunged.
http://www.mailmsg.com/SPAM_munging.htm
Cheers,
Chuck
Paranoia comes from experience - and is not necessarily a bad thing.
