Background Programs

  • Thread starter Thread starter JIM B
  • Start date Start date
J

JIM B

How can you tell what programs are running in the background..
What programs are necessary to run in the background , and how do you shut
them off ????
THANKS !!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Open Task Manager and look at Applications and Processes tabs.

To start Task Manager:

Ctrl + Alt + Delete
or
Ctrl + Shift + Esc
or
Right click the Taskbar | Click on Task Manager
or
Start | Run | Type: taskmgr | Click OK

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In
 
GREAT HELP - THANKS A LOT


Wesley Vogel said:
Open Task Manager and look at Applications and Processes tabs.

To start Task Manager:

Ctrl + Alt + Delete
or
Ctrl + Shift + Esc
or
Right click the Taskbar | Click on Task Manager
or
Start | Run | Type: taskmgr | Click OK

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In
Click to expand...
 
Here's an HTA (HTML Application) I've written that might be of use to you.
I'll include the description and link below incase you'd like to use it. Hope
it can help.

Description:
When opened, PKiller shows all currently running processes at that time.
Included is a manual refresh button to update the process list. For each
process the user can perform a Google Lookup, a Uniblue Lookup or the process
can be killed. Use caution in terminating processes as doing so on certain
processes can make the computer unstable or crash.

Link:
http://www.geocities.com/dhamangry/hta/030/index.html
 
You can also look at Running Tasks in System Information.

Start | Run | Type: msinfo32 | Click OK |
Click the [+] next to Software Environment and click on Running Tasks.

As far as what to get rid of, look up the somename.exe in a Google Search to
see what that something is.

You can also Go to Process with the Task Manager.

Task Manager
Programs that are running
The Applications tab shows the status of the programs running on your
computer.
On this tab, you can Go to Process.
Right click the program
Select: Go to Process
This will switch to the Processes tab with
the related process highlighted.

For example if Notepad was open, doing the above would show that notepad.exe
is the actual file that's running.

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In
 
JIM said:
How can you tell what programs are running in the background..
Click to expand...


Look at them in Task Manager (press Ctrl-Alt-Delete).

What programs are necessary to run in the background ,
Click to expand...


None are necessary. You should have running only those *you* find useful.
You obviously shouldn't turn off your security-oriented programs
(anti-virus, anti-spyware, firewall) but everything else is up to you.

and how do you
shut them off ????
Click to expand...


Here's my standard message on this subject:

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.
 
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