How can I tell what programs I have open and what they are???

Question

My computor has been running reeeaaalllyy slow, my son told me it was because I have too many programs running at the same time [after trying everything else] he did the ctrl,alt,del.,and showed me I had 15 programs open at the same time he closed most of them and now my computor has never run faster!!!! although he couldn't tell me how to tell what these programs were or how to tell what was open without having to use the ctrl-alt-del method please help!!!

Answer 1

hi,press Ctrl+Alt+Del,this brings up the task manager in windows Xp. You can see under the applications tab what programs you have running. Do not confuse this with processes!!!!......most of these will be essential and stopping one without knowing what you are doing will crash your pc.
If you have to have several programs running at once,you need way more than 256 Mb of ram,really 512 is the minimum with 1Gb recommended. Xp will function with 256Mb but only just and will be very slow.
If shutting down programs gave your pc performance similar to when it was new it's unlikely you have a spyware infection but you must have one anti-spyware program,preferably one that runs in the background giving real time protection.Ms defender is free from Microsoft,the best of the best is Ewido 4,operating with true German efficiency and available as a 30 day free trial.Ad aware personal Se also really good.
Make sure you perform maintainance,delete temporary files,defragment your hard drive every month...this gives much increased performance.
Remove invalid registry entries....be very careful here some tools for this are way to aggressive and cause more problems than they solve. The best program for computer novices is Tune up utilities 2006....again a free trial for 30 days. Among other things it will clean up junk from your hard drives,clean your registry and not cause problems,speed up your internet connection and optimise your pc for better performance.Does loads of other stuff but they can do their own Ads!! It also advises you on what programs run when windows starts....having programs load when windows starts is essential for anti-virus, firewall ,anti spyware, mouse, keyboard ,sound ,graphics etc but not stuff like photo editing or office programs. This just slows down your pc.

Answer 2

I will provide you with several solutions.
1) Run disk cleanup on all drives and remove all restore points but the most recent ones.
2) Go to Start->Run->Type Services.msc.
In the screen that appears, there is a huge list of services that Windows XP automatically has running. Many of these services are not needed for the general user. Concentrate on the column startup type and Locate those listings where it is set to "Automatic".
Then right click->properties and carefully read the Explanation of the service.
You will be able to tell whether that service is required by you or not by the explanation. Eg. You dont need Wireless Zero Configuration if you dont have such need. Set the startup type of these services to Manual or Disabled.
Be Careful while doing this. Create a Restore point before this and revert to the original if the thing doesnt work out.
After a while when you have edited all the services, close the Services window.

3) In the Run Dialog, Type "regedit" and Navigate to the following Key.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE->SOFTWARE->Microsoft->Windows->CurrentVersion->Startup.
When you click on the key, a list of startup programs will appear on the right hand side pane of the screen.
There you delete those programs that you do not require to start with Windows.
4) If possible get a registry cleaner software such as Easy Clean or Amust Reg Cleaner and Clean your registry with these utilities.
5) Install a Ram Release software that frees The ram periodically which will give you Increased Performance.Eg. Release Ram Pro, Cyberlat Ram Cleaner etc.
6) Defragment your hard disks to ensure max. performance.
7) Clean temporary files regularily and do the same with the Temp Internet files,Cookies and History.
8) Regularily clean the Windows Prefetch folder. To do this type "Prefetch" in the run dialog. In the window that appears, Select all files and delete them.

Try these and you will find your PC A lot more responsive......

Answer 3

From your explanation I understood that you are running Windows.. Don't know which one, though)
Anyway in Windows Xp, for example there is a msconfig program. You can run it from Start->Run->msconfig
There you can see what services and applications are started each time your computer is turned on. You can also find some explanation about most of these processes there.

Answer 4

programs will start from a couple of sources...

1. check under Start / All Programs / Start up. You'll see programs that will start everytime the computer starts. If you don't want them to, just right-click on them and delete them (this doesn't delete the program, just stops it from starting)

2. A little more complicated, but use msconfig.
Start / run / msconfig
You'll see a window come up with tabs across the top. click on the one named...Startup. Be careful, but if you see programs running that you don't want you can delete them from there.

Also, don't forget to check your Add/Remove programs under the Control Panel to get rid of programs that you don't want anymore.

good luck.

Answer 5

Your pc may be slow due any of the following reason:
1) More files, do disk clean up

2) Less capacity of RAM, Increase it to about 256

3) May be infected with a virus or a spyware (it is rare but not impossible)

Answer 6

sure I had those . Your adware/ virus defender will have to manage it on a whole experiment and dispose of it to vault . Are your firewalls robust sufficient to maintain those matters out . It acquired so dangerous on mine I needed to strip the PC reminiscence correct again to manufacturing facility settings , then reinstall the whole thing .. Took a few hours to do .. Take a again up disc first

Answer 7

you can go to : start => my recent documents

That's how you can see the programs that you've opened recently