Background Processes Help? (I know we've had alot of these..)

[Iron Man]

yeah.. shared family computer running windows XP with sp2.. and its sluggish sometimes. i dont really feel like updating the computers drivers etc since its 4 years old and that old in computer terms.. i think that alot of the slowness comes with background processes, is that correct? if so, which ones can i end on startup/ find a way to get rid of completely?

also we do virus scans every once in a while with Avast

[jrgp]

Well, the fastest way to kill a process and everything it started is to right click on it in the task managedr and do End Process Tree.

Do you even use google toolbar? There is a process for it and you can just kill it if you want. It might give you a little speed boost. Do you use itunes but don't have an ipod? Feel free to kill that ipodservice.exe. A lot of those are parts of windows that you can't kill. Killing explorer.exe will actually take away everything you can see except your wallpaper background image. To get it all back you need to do control + alt + delete, get task manager, and do task > new > explorer.exe.

If you ever want to know what one of those processes actually is, google the exact name of the process and you will most likely get a detailed description.

[Espadon]

Googlebar sucks. I used to use it because I thought it was cool and 'geeky' but then one day I realized it was sucking huge amounts of RAM, and that I really didn't use it at all. It's not worth it, in my opinion.

[Flamingo]

iTuneshelper doesn't do bollocks but takes up 1.676 K

[blackdevil0742]

go to:
start>run>type "msconfig">go to the Startup tab and uncheck programs you don't want to start. These are most of the time unnecessary but make sure you know what it is...as some processes such as nvidia has some stuff there while qucktime, adobe reader, msn can be turned off.

You could also turn off some services but then you have to know what they are and do as it can cause problems otherwise.

[jrgp]

go to:
start>run>type "msconfig">go to the Startup tab and uncheck programs you don't want to start. These are most of the time unnecessary but make sure you know what it is...as some processes such as nvidia has some stuff there while qucktime, adobe reader, msn can be turned off.

I highly advise you to not take away anything related to hardware drivers, such as nvidia / ati / via, etc.

[a-4-year-old]

show the performance graph, none of those are affecting CPU, if its slow its just because you have so little ram, If you don't want to upgrade ram, you could reformat, if that inconveniences you too much then you can just go through that and msconfig and blast everything you don't want on startup/running right now.

Also it might be slow because you need a defrag.

Just leave everything related to drivers/system/explorer.exe/virusscan, everything else can go.

[Lapis Lazuli]

Click start -> run

Type mmc then press enter

Go up to File and click Add/Remove Snap-in

Then click add, and look for the snap-in labeled Services

Double click on it, then hit finish, and expand the Services tree

You can then enable/disable services as you please, many of which aren't available under msconfig

Alternatively, if you just need a quick way to temporarily disable most of the services you're running (to play a game, for example) you can try http://www.freewebs.com/lapissoldat/wintools.7z

In that 7zip archive is a batch file called netstop which disables most everything (until you restart), note that it may or may not give you the option to disable services that may or may not affect your computer's stability. If it screws stuff up, just restart. I'm not liable if it makes your system explode.

[Snow]

Click the Start button and select Run.
Type msconfig and click Ok.

If your computer is in Normal Startup do the following:

Click the Selective Startup button.
Uncheck the Load Startup items (or Load Startup Group items) box.
Select the Services tab and check Hide all Microsoft services.
Click Disable all.
Click Apply and Close.
Restart the computer when prompted.
Once restarted, if the system configuration window appears, close the window. Select No to restarting if prompted.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If your computer is set for Selective Startup do the following:

Click the Startup tab at the top.
Make a note of the items that have checkmarks next to them.
Select Disable all.
Go to the Services tab and check Hide all Microsoft services.
Make a note of the services that have checkmarks next to them.
Click Disable all.
Click Apply and Close.
Restart the computer when prompted.
Once restarted, if the system configuration window appears, close the window. Select No to restarting if prompted.

Edit -- still be careful with what you do. Bizarrely I actually managed to screwup my display driver. All I had to do was a re-install luckily. This is at your own risk.

[Lapis Lazuli]

Click the Start button and select Run.
Type msconfig and click Ok.

If your computer is in Normal Startup do the following:

Click the Selective Startup button.
Uncheck the Load Startup items (or Load Startup Group items) box.
Select the Services tab and check Hide all Microsoft services.
Click Disable all.
Click Apply and Close.
Restart the computer when prompted.
Once restarted, if the system configuration window appears, close the window. Select No to restarting if prompted.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If your computer is set for Selective Startup do the following:

Click the Startup tab at the top.
Make a note of the items that have checkmarks next to them.
Select Disable all.
Go to the Services tab and check Hide all Microsoft services.
Make a note of the services that have checkmarks next to them.
Click Disable all.
Click Apply and Close.
Restart the computer when prompted.
Once restarted, if the system configuration window appears, close the window. Select No to restarting if prompted.

Edit -- still be careful with what you do. Bizarrely I actually managed to screwup my display driver. All I had to do was a re-install luckily. This is at your own risk.

It's not bizarre. That's what happens when you disable ALL startup applications and services without giving each one a look-over to ensure it's not necessary. Video card driver software, Anti-virus/anti-trojan/firewall software, sound card/keyboard software, and other such pieces of software are often considered necessities.

[Snow]

Oh heck, I knew that. I should have explained that my guide is the end all (sorry about that  ), if you really want to go down to the bare minimum. Yes you can and do shut down necessities, so it is wise to go through the checklists first and keep things like video software, etc checked (running). Me, being a dumbass one day and NOT going through the checklist to keep some things running, rebooted. It shouldn't have however, screwed up the video driver, just disabled it.