What are the processes in Task Manager?

chateauneufdupape · 15 March 2005 at 12:17AM

When my computer was brand new, there were very few processes. As time goes by the number of processes has increased when the computer is idle i.e. no applications running. I currently have 52 processes as a minimum. So the questions are:-

1) How do you identify what they are / which application they are associated with

2) Which ones are crucial and should not be removed

3) Assuming you can identify ones that you don't require unless the application is running, how do you stop them from running all of the time.

I assume that having lots of processes running slows down the computer.

I look forward to your thoughts.

shrek101 · 15 March 2005 at 12:37AM

I use wintasks pro

http://www.liutilities.com/products/wintasksstd/

Which can show you wahat programs are running like task maanger but tell you what program it is.

You can try a free trial here

http://www.liutilities.com/support/downloads/

Rex_Mundi · 15 March 2005 at 1:13AM

You can look up the tasks here http://www.answersthatwork.com/Tasklist_pages/tasklist.htm

These pages will explain what the processes are, and whether you need them.

I assume that having lots of processes running slows down the computer.

You assume correctly.

sra · 15 March 2005 at 10:57AM

Before going after processes, you might want to see if you can catch them at at startup:

http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_index.htm

is a good source for help. At the bottom are a list of startup managers. If you use spybot S+D, then it already has a startup manager as one of its extra tools (I think it uses the above site as its reference)

jma_4 · 15 March 2005 at 11:32AM

Nobody ever need download a start-up manager, they're bloated and unnecessary as there are already features bundled with Windows to manage startup.

Hit Start->Run and type "msconfig" into the box. Press Return. If you skip on over to the "Startup" tab, you can re-configure the startup options here. On rebooting, the system will tell you it is running a custom configuration so just select the box that says "Don't tell me this again" (or something, can't remember the exact wording...) and press OK.

There, done. No need to bloat your system with more crap

sra · 15 March 2005 at 11:56AM

jma wrote:

Nobody ever need download a start-up manager, they're bloated and unnecessary as there are already features bundled with Windows to manage startup.

Hit Start->Run and type "msconfig" into the box. Press Return. If you skip on over to the "Startup" tab, you can re-configure the startup options here. On rebooting, the system will tell you it is running a custom configuration so just select the box that says "Don't tell me this again" (or something, can't remember the exact wording...) and press OK.

There, done. No need to bloat your system with more crap

I don't disagree

But not everyone is happy playing with msconfig.
Which is why I posted the link above that tells you the order you should try to shut off programs

I mentioned spybot because a lot of people have it already and don't even know it has a startup manager - spybot also tries to identify the items and tell you what they are (using the list from the site above)

chateauneufdupape · 15 March 2005 at 10:04PM

Thanks folks, yet again the people on the forum have provided excellent advice.

chateauneufdupape · 15 March 2005 at 11:01PM

Having had a good look around the info supplied and what's actually in my Task Manager it seems quite a task to remove items manually. As I am a lazy s-- I am interested in either Wintasks Pro at $50 or The Ultimate Troubleshooter from Answersthatwork at $25. Any thoughts? Especially if you think they are bloated c---. Cos that made me smile.

What are the processes in Task Manager?

Comments

Confirm your email address to Create Threads and Reply

🚀 Getting Started

Categories

Is this how you want to be seen?

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free