What PC processes can i safely delete?

[combatcolin]

This as so much easier using Mac OS 9...



Anyway, by CTR ALT DEL you of course bring up the Windows Task Manager, with all the arcane little tasks that sap memory and CPU time.

Can anyone reccomend a site that explains what all these process's do and what can be safely turned off to increase system performance.

AND BEFORE SOMEONE SAYS IT...

Im buying an Rev B Intel Powermac next year so no "Buy a Mac" funnys.

Many thanks

 

[dr_lha]

Actually I was wondering why you're posting this on a Mac board under in the Mac OS X forum. At least you should put it under the "Windows on a Mac" forum on this site.

 

[SilentPanda]

Well if it's a clean install of Windows then the processes running are generally needed. Usually I just google the individual process name and find out what it does.

 

[cantthinkofone]

a good safe number is about 21. if you have 30 or 40 somthing things running, well you have spyware or a virus.

 

[SilentPanda]

a good safe number is about 21. if you have 30 or 40 somthing things running, well you have spyware or a virus.

That seems pretty arbitrary. I have 45 processes running right now and can guarantee you I have no spyware or virus. Well... at least within the confines of what the spyware and anti-virus vendors know.

 

[Togglehead]

a good safe number is about 21. if you have 30 or 40 somthing things running, well you have spyware or a virus.

not true....with a user logged in, things running in the background....(e.g. AIM, anti virus, firewall...MBM...system tray stuff basically) then about 30 is logical.

http://www.liutilities.com/products/wintaskspro/processlibrary/
http://www.windowsstartup.com
http://www.beemerworld.com/tips/servicesxp.htm

check them out for starters.....

 

[Togglehead]

That seems pretty arbitrary. I have 45 processes running right now and can guarantee you I have no spyware or virus. Well... at least within the confines of what the spyware and anti-virus vendors know.

that still a lot of processes.....what IS running in the background?

 

[timswim78]

If you want to know what your processes are, you can:
- Download hijackthis and post your log to a computing forum, such as the applications forum at anandtech.com
- Download Spybot Search and Destroy. In the tools section, there is a feature that provides information for most of your running processes

 

[plinden]

WinXP does have too many unnecessary services running by default. Especially OEM installs from the Dells and Gateways of this world add excessive services for startup. Generally, you can disable several of the default startup processes without any screwups (although I once killed iTunes by being too aggressive - restoring to the default processes and being a little more careful fixed it).

At the minimum, you should disable the Indexing Service and Messenger (not the same as the Microsoft instant message client - I think this is off by default in SP2). I also disable Automatic Updates, Background Intelligent Transfer Service and Cryptographic Services - these are needed for automatic updates, but I apply updates manually and turn these on when needed. Several of the remote access services can be disabled if you're not running on a corporate network.

To disable them, go to Start/Run and type services.msc. Double click the service and stop and disable it.

BlackViper used to have all this info, but he seems to have been offline for several months. A similar site that lists services you can disable is here but I don't like that one as much as I liked BlackViper.

 

[Timepass]

That seems pretty arbitrary. I have 45 processes running right now and can guarantee you I have no spyware or virus. Well... at least within the confines of what the spyware and anti-virus vendors know.

man only 45. After boot up I most of the time sitting I think a little over 60 and I know for a fact that there is no spyware or virus running (it been a while since I looked and since I dont even restarted very offen that reduces it even more). But things do add up very quickly.

if itunes is on the computer is general going to cause 4 programs to open up (itunes.exe, itunehelp.exe, ipodservices.exe and then what ever quicktime also runs). Antivirus is 4 or 5 I believe. then any spelized drivers one is running. For me that another good size number. It adds up pretty quickly. But then again I do have several things added to my start up (itunes, aim, and a few other programs) but there are a lot of very different things added to my PC that cause more things to open up.

 

[Togglehead]

WinXP does have too many unnecessary services running by default. Especially OEM installs from the Dells and Gateways of this world add excessive services for startup. Generally, you can disable several of the default startup processes without any screwups (although I once killed iTunes by being too aggressive - restoring to the default processes and being a little more careful fixed it).

At the minimum, you should disable the Indexing Service and Messenger (not the same as the Microsoft instant message client - I think this is off by default in SP2). I also disable Automatic Updates, Background Intelligent Transfer Service and Cryptographic Services - these are needed for automatic updates, but I apply updates manually and turn these on when needed. Several of the remote access services can be disabled if you're not running on a corporate network.

To disable them, go to Start/Run and type services.msc. Double click the service and stop and disable it.

BlackViper used to have all this info, but he seems to have been offline for several months. A similar site that lists services you can disable is here but I don't like that one as much as I liked BlackViper.

i miss black viper....*sniff*

 

[M-theory]

If you want to know what your processes are, you can:
- Download hijackthis and post your log to a computing forum, such as the applications forum at anandtech.com

Personally, I highly recommend this if you are concerned about a virus, spyware, or malware, the helpers on the various XP bullitin board sites are very experienced with these matters.

 

[velocityg4]

Here is a guide I used to turn off services I didn't need. http://www.theeldergeek.com/services_guide.htm
This guide is only useful for services from MS. The other ones you will have to decide on yourself. You get to the services through the run command "services.msc".
Another good spot for disabling processes is through the run command "msconfig" in the startup tab.

Note: You can cause problems if you disable needed services. Read the guide carefully.

 

[Togglehead]

Personally, I highly recommend this if you are concerned about a virus, spyware, or malware, the helpers on the various XP bullitin board sites are very experienced with these matters.

be careful with Hijack this......its designed for admin users.....dont just click around without knowing what youre changing....you can entirely disable your system that way

dont use msconfig....too error happy

try windowsstartup.com the prog is free, and REALLY easy to use.

 

[M-theory]

be careful with Hijack this......its designed for admin users.....dont just click around without knowing what youre changing....you can entirely disable your system that way

dont use msconfig....too error happy

try windowsstartup.com the prog is free, and REALLY easy to use.

I agree, I was supporting running the program and posting the log for 'helpers' to diagnose any problems.

 

[iPhil]

Found a site here has a xp list of items you can disable safely in XP

 

[Togglehead]

I agree, I was supporting running the program and posting the log for 'helpers' to diagnose any problems.

hmmm i missed that.....yeah right on

 

[combatcolin]

Actually I was wondering why you're posting this on a Mac board under in the Mac OS X forum. At least you should put it under the "Windows on a Mac" forum on this site.

From what i can figure the "Windows on a Mac" forum is just that!

I want info on Windows on a PC!
(ANd i bet that 90% of Mac users have a PC at home, whatever age)



Anyway, msconfig no good, any reccomedatins for some software that does the job better?

 

[caveman_uk]

ANd i bet that 90% of Mac users have a PC at home, whatever age

I don't, so that means I'm 10% of 3%. Wow...I AM in the computing niche

 

[bigandy]

I don't, so that means I'm 10% of 3%. Wow...I AM in the computing niche

mee too! don't you feel special? i do!

 

[plinden]

Anyway, msconfig no good, any reccomedatins for some software that does the job better?

Hmm? What do you mean by "no good"? It's just a program for configuring services.

Anyway, don't use msconfig. It's too easy to screw up things badly with it. A couple of people (including myself) have already said to use services.msc, and a couple of the websites linked to here also describe how to do this.

By the way, I have a windows laptop, that spends 99% of its time in Linux, and 90% of its time at work. So do I count as having a Windows PC at home?

 

[combatcolin]

Term "Can of Worms" springs to mind"



Just going to say that using a PC has alwasy been and always will be the best advert possible for the Apple Mac, a 20 year long and running advert campaign that has sold millions of Apple Macs.

Will have a fiddle at the weekend with my PC, too tired during the week.

 

[jdechko]

Best way is to right-click on My Computer and go to Manage>Services & Apps>Services

The following can be disabled or set to manual (unless you know you use these):

Alerter
DNS (if you're not part of a DNS group)
Computer Browser (if you're not on a network)
Error Reporting Service
Fast User Switching
Fax
Help & Support (you can switch to manual if necessary)
Indexing service (not like spotlight, so its not a worry)
Messenger
Print Spooler (set to manual)
Remote Access Auto Connection Manager
Remote Access Connection Manager
Remote Desktop Help Session Manager
Remote Registry
Secondary Logon
Server (if you don't have any shared folders, it can be disabled)
Task Scheduler
Telnet
Themes
Wireless Zero Configuration (unless you connect wirelessly)

In addition, if you run msconfig (Start>Run>msconfig.exe), and go to the startup tab you can uncheck some of the following processes:

anything related to acrobat (speed launch assistant, etc.)
msmsgs (messenger)
qttask

You can also experiment with other processes on the msconfig, as it will boot with that configuration the next time, but will not save those changes unless you tell it to.

 

[combatcolin]

Thanks, i'll start tm when my brain has recovered from work.