I have many programs running in the background of my computer - how do I permanently stop them from running?

Answer 1

Downlod Autoruns and save to desktop. when you run it, go to options and click on hide microsoft entries. then press F5 to refresh. After, click on the logon tab and uncheck/delete anything you do not want running in the background. Autoruns may make seeing what loads on startup easier that msconfig, but it is an advanced program . Therefore if you uncheck/delete something you are not sure about, you could damage your system.

Answer 2

Assuming Windows XP...
Click the Start button
Select Run
Type in: msconfig
A window will open - select the startup tab
You will see everything the registry starts during startup
Uncheck anything you do not want to laod (Most people can uncheck everything without harming their PC)
You can usually guess from the file names and the directory what each thing starts
If you uncheck and then a program does not run correctly, just go back and recheck that program

Answer 3

Start>Run and then type msconfig.exe
You will see all of the programs that run when you start your pc. Be careful and only stop the programs that you are sure of since many programs are need to run your pc. Check off one and then reboot. If everything is OK, try another.

Answer 4

the only way to PERMANENTLY make them stop is to uninstall them. when you install certain programs, some of them make a registry edit that makes certain aspects of the program in the background in preparation of when you run the program. Some internet based programs are very labor intensive like this on your pc as well...

Answer 5

If you are running Windows,

Left click on Start
Left click on Run
Type msconfig then left click OK
Left click on the Startup tab
Find the program(s) you want to stop and uncheck them (Caution: Make sure you pick the right ones)
Left click OK

Restart your system.

Hope this helps

Good Luck

Answer 6

Press and hold Ctrl, alt and del, and select end program or end now, you might have to do it a couple of times depending on how many programs are running and how fast the computer responds.

Answer 7

if u are not a advanced user. u can download "skybot" from download.com.
in spybot click on tools on left hand side. click on "system startup" on the left hand side menu. disable any start up process u might not need.
If u have advanced knowledge u can also edit these entries thru registry.
most of the background process are either run in startup, services or by invoking application. clearing most of them from startup will reduce a lot of them.
hope this help.
...PG