I think that you have been given a bit of a run-around with this, so I
will now add my two cents and take this to the other extreme, I will
take a contrary approach and be the Devil's advocate.
Never mind RAM usage, how much of it should or should not be used, and
how much is enough or too little or too much. What others have said is
mostly all true and I have no intentions of touching RAM usage here.
Instead lets talk about useless clutter! It is up to you, and only you,
to decide what you want running on your computer. You should run what
you think is useful and kill what you think is useless clutter.
Useless clutter is just that, stuff that you hardly ever use and that
does not need to run for nothing on your computer. It can potentially
slow down the startup and shutdown times, it can cause conflicts with
other things, it makes it harder to keep an eye on the running state of
the computer, it makes it more difficult to get "intimate" with the
operating system and what should really be running for *your* needs.
Once you get to know the processes and services that run on your machine
then you will have better control over what goes on with the computer.
As I see it now, you look at your Task Manager and you see 61 processes
and you haven't got a clue as to what any of them do. You could have
spyware in the list and you wouldn't even know it! By getting rid of
useless clutter you will get the list down to what *you* want running on
the computer and you will get to know what the processes are. As you
get used to the list you will know what should and what shouldn't be in
the list, and as soon as the list changes you will be able to spot the
changes almost immediately. As it is now there might be 62 processes in
your list tomorrow and you wouldn't even know what new process added
itself to the list.
Now, what should you have running? I don't know, that is up to you to
decide. This is what I will tell you, there are only six (6) critical
Windows XP system services! These critical system services are:
- Csrss.exe (Client/Server Runtime Server Subsystem)
- Lsass.exe (Local Security Authority Service)
- Smss.exe (Session Manager Subsystem)
- RpcSs (Remote Procedure Call Server Service)*
- Winlogon.exe (Windows logon process)
- services.exe (Windows Service Controller)
* Runs inside one of the SVChost.exe. Not critical in its own right but
hardly anything runs without it.
So there you have it, the 6 critical processes, without these 6 items
things don't work too well! Along with that the Task Manager would show:
- System (the kernel or kernel-mode threads)
- System Idle Process (Not a process or service but a single thread that
runs on each processor, its sole task is to account for processor time
spent doing nothing.)
And there you have it, plain and simply the minimum 8 items that will or
should always show in the Task Manager, add the Task Manager itself to
the list and it will give you 9 processes. Anything else is fair game
and entirely up to you to decide if it should or should not run. Of
course others will say that you need or should have this or that and
they may or may not be right, it's up to you to decide. For example,
you will almost certainly want to have Explorer.exe in the list, so
don't try to kill it! If you have a printer you will probably want
Spoolsv.exe running, you don't have a printer, you say? Then there is
no need to have the Print Spooler service running, it's that simple.
Start by removing unwanted or unneeded applications from the startup
locations. Click or right-click on the icons in the Notification Area
or go in the programs themselves and see if they have an option to
remove themselves from the startup locations. If you really have
absolutely no need for the applications then you can uninstall them. If
you don't know what the processes are then search for the process name
on the internet. Places like
http://www.answersthatwork.com/Tasklist_pages/tasklist.htm have
information about many of the processes that may be running on your
computer. Some of these programs can be real pests, they may not have
obvious options to allow you to remove them from the start locations, in
these cases helper applications like CodeStuff Starter
http://codestuff.tripod.com/products_starter.html and AutoRuns
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902.aspx can be
useful. Be careful with AutoRuns, don't disable things that you are
unsure of.
After you get rid of unwanted applications get rid on unneeded services.
Get rid of the applications first because some of these applications
may in turn start certain services, so getting rid of the applications
first may automatically remove some of the unneeded services. These
sites will help you identify the Windows services and explain their use:
http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm
http://www.theeldergeek.com/services_guide.htm
Keep in mind that just because I said that Windows XP can run with 6
services that doesn't mean that you should run it that way or that you
should disable almost all the services! Do your research before you go
about disabling things. As I said earlier, it is your computer, it is
up to you to decide what you want running on it. Never mind what others
say, that 61 is too many or that 20 is too little or that 40 is about
right, none of that is true, what is true and right is what you want
running on your computer! Only you can decide that.
John
