Windows Task Manager

IcyEars

If you ware wanting to speed your computer up and stop it running things that it doesn't need to (Windows XP does tend to run quite a few things tht are unrequired to a normal user), you could do worse than browse around https://www.annoyances.org.

They have lots of tips for speeding up you computer and stopping things running that you don't need.

charlieheard

Rex_Mundi wrote:

What sort of system are you running?

I've just checked mine, and I've got 8 tasks running, including 4 security programs plus Firefox for this site.

Windows systems DO NOT need loads of processes running to work properly. The more you have on the go at once. The more your system will be using your computers resources.

What utter rubbish. :mad:

When plain Windows XP boots, it starts at least 30 processes. Add an internet connection, virus scanner, firewall, etc and mine starts with well over 40. Add a few other programs and mine is currently at 67.

If another user logs on, that will go up by at least 5, probably 10.

If you want to see what runs at startup and stop unwanted processes, I use WinPatrol which allows you to "disable" startup processes - it doesn't delete them but turns them off so that you can enable them if necessary.

gizmos

Well I have 81 processes onthe go and only have MSN open and one internet browser window. The rest are all stuff that auto loads and are necessary for me to work ok. USB diver, Windows update, Accu point, etc etc no truth in the fact that the more processes that are open the slower the PC runs - what really hogs the CPU is if you are maxing out your CPU usage and to find your "hoggers" sort by CPU. You could have 100 processes but only using 4% of your CPU, or 10 processes and utilising 90% of your CPU.

Stubbarama

Ok Thanks Intel.

Stubbarama

Maybe your getting confused between the Applications tab and Processes ?

Rex_Mundi

charlieheard wrote:

What utter rubbish. :mad:

When plain Windows XP boots, it starts at least 30 processes. Add an internet connection, virus scanner, firewall, etc and mine starts with well over 40. Add a few other programs and mine is currently at 67.

If another user logs on, that will go up by at least 5, probably 10.

If you want to see what runs at startup and stop unwanted processes, I use WinPatrol which allows you to "disable" startup processes - it doesn't delete them but turns them off so that you can enable them if necessary.

Ignorance is bliss eh?

I see from your post that you choose to use a program (winpatrol) to do the work of a native windows feature (msconfig). No wonder you have so much stuff running at startup. You obviously need to run programs to do the basics for you!

The only startup items that are ABSOLUTELY necessary are:

ScanRegistry
TaskMonitor
SystemTray
LoadPowerProfile
Antivirus

Anything else is simply not needed for windows to run. The more you have running in the background, the more you will use up your systems resources. It's as simple as that.

When programs load at startup, you may feel that they are not running because you are not using them. How do you get the auto update popup if they are not running at all then? Auto update is a quite common feature with a default installation of a program.

Me_Myself_2

So much advice!!!!

I don't know where to start. I think I'll carry on looking at my list ising the two web sites quoted and see what each item is.

Thanms again guys.

charlieheard

Rex_Mundi wrote:

Ignorance is bliss eh?

I see from your post that you choose to use a program (winpatrol) to do the work of a native windows feature (msconfig). No wonder you have so much stuff running at startup. You obviously need to run programs to do the basics for you!

The only startup items that are ABSOLUTELY necessary are:

ScanRegistry
TaskMonitor
SystemTray
LoadPowerProfile
Antivirus

Anything else is simply not needed for windows to run. The more you have running in the background, the more you will use up your systems resources. It's as simple as that.

When programs load at startup, you may feel that they are not running because you are not using them. How do you get the auto update popup if they are not running at all then? Auto update is a quite common feature with a default installation of a program.

Don't listen to this tripe! :mad:

As I said, plain vanilla WinXP out of the box has 30+ processes running. Try it! Add the rest needed to make it talk to the world safely and you're at 40+. After that, the world's your oyster: as mentioned above, running hundreds of processes in WinXP is fine because using resources is OK - it's what they're there for - as long as processes don't hog resources or CPU. So absolute rubbish again! :mad:

I also happen to use a program as part of my PC health monitoring to watch startup programs: this pops up a warning whenever anything gets added to the startup such as auto-update programs. This is called WinPatrol - msconfig cannot manage that, it just shows what will run when you open it. I chose to run it as it uses minimal resources and CPU and protects my PC. Is that wrong? Should I remove it? Of course not :mad:

And why is anti-virus essential, but not firewall or anti-spyware or anti-trojan or any other part of PC health monitoring? :mad:

Please don't patronise me and talk knowledgeably about things like this till you really are knowledgeable yourself

albertross_2

Whatever you run at startup, uses resources (memory and cpu) all the time, and leaves less available for running the programs that you bought the PC for in the first place. The fact that it doesn't appear to be hogging the cpu at any point in time, doesn't mean that it doesn't blip to 99% at points throughout the day.