What processes are ok to get rid of in Win XP Home...

[Ren.182]

OK, at the moment i have 42 processes running. And i'd like to get rid of some to free up some memory and such on my computer.

Does anyone have a website that could tell me what processes are ok to close in Windows XP Home edition?
Or some kind of program that will do it all for me, or some batch file that will run on start up and only open the needed processes?

Thanks for any help. It's really appreciated.

 

[Cole]

Well everything really depends on virus scanners that are running and stuff like that.
I have 30 running.

 

[jondy]

Peasants. I have seventeen.

 

[JellyWorld]

Google the names of all your processes.

 

[Laivasse]

You can just google the names of each process to find out what they are, or you can refer to sites like these:
http://www.neuber.com/taskmanager/process/
http://www.liutilities.com/products/wintaskspro/processlibrary/

They will pretty much tell you what is ok and what isn't. Remember it is normal to have quite a few instances of svchost.exe running at any one time - I have 4 (21 processes in all, a few more when I fire up my antivirus).

 

[DiSTuRbEd]

28 running atm, but I can have it so 24-25 only run. anything under 30 is greeeeeat.

 

[Ren.182]

Thanks for the help guys.
I'll go through all my processes later and find out which i can remove.

 

[jimbo118]

turn off all the ones with your user name beside them in task manager, leave system, network and local service alone, i turn off all my user name processes before i play for example bf2, usually get it from 32 services to 22 or so, its usually crap like online update applications for virus scanners, firewalls, ati, dvd player etc...

blackviper had a good article on what you could turn off, google blackviper...

http://web.archive.org/web/20041123023227/www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm

 

[Ren.182]

Thanks, Jimbo... Found that article more helpful

 

[Adabiviak]

In general, you should be quite familiar with processes and what they do. I have 35 running after system reboot. I expect them at startup, know what every one of them does. You should never let anything run on your computer that you don't want running. A great many software programs will install these processes and not tell you explicitly, which is something I really dislike. I might be more likely to let them remain if the install program said, "To use this function, an extra program will be installed that will run at startup " or something like that. Before playing a resource-intensive game, you'll know exactly what you do or do not need running in the background.

 

[Zappathefappa]

Yea, as some other people said you can safely close down most of your processes - anything with your username next to it (or in my case "default" cuz im on my grandma's comp right now). You can also close down most "local service" apps cuz while some u need a lot tend to be random "helper apps" like i have some sorta "ipod service" that always starts up.

From trial and error ive found that if something's not meant to be closed down it wont let you - with the exception of some of those "svchost.exe" things which will automatically shut down ur comp in 30 secs for some reason.

Also, if you're really short on ram u can turn off explorer if you're fast enough (hit shortcut to game, then turn off explorer before game starts - then when u finish there'll be no icons/taskbar but u can hit ctrl-alt-del, do "new task" and type "explorer" to get all taht jazz back).
In general I suggest trial and error.

 

[WhiteZero]

41 with PeerGurdain, Firewall, Anti-Virus, gMail, Pulse, etc, etc, etc

 

[Pesmerga]

23 running atm

 

[gweedodogg69]

26 with media player and 2 IE windows open

 

[sinkoman]

use a program like Regcleaner to kill the processes from your startup, and do a thorough go through your services.

Allot of that is unnecessary shit. Damn near NOTHING should be running under Owner unless you want it to be running.

And it's really unnecessary to have you'r av programs running in your background. It's nothing more than a resource hog. If you do weekly or even daily manual antivirus scans, you can free up a ton of memory and still get av protection. Same goes for anit spyware programs.

On a side note, anybody know why on my pc I can't filter my processes by user? It doesn't show the user there anyway. Like where it should say Owner or System, it's blank.

Oh and to shut you all up, I too have 17. And that's WITH my firewall running!

I and Fundy shall rule the ram world!

 

[xLostx]

I did have 58 processes running but I got rid of some so now im down to 51

 

[sinkoman]

I did have 58 processes running but I got rid of some so now im down to 51

AHHAHAHAHA!

Download Regcleaner NOW and clean out your startup list!

Run msconfig.exe also to see what's starting up.

 

[Asus]

41 with PeerGurdain, Firewall, Anti-Virus, gMail, Pulse, etc, etc, etc

I also have 41 at the moment.