What can I do about having too many processes running on my computer even when I first boot the computer?

Question

I have been told that one reason my computer seems to run out of RAM memory fairly quickly is that I have too many processes running at once. The computer has 500 MB RAM and I am running Windows XP. When I boot the computer there are already between 60-65 processes running. What I don't understand is the following:

1-How can I tell which processes can be safely turned off?
2-How can I keep unnecessary processes from returning the next time I boot the computer (i.e., how do I turn them off permanently)?

Answer 1

I was having this same problem and posted my question, almost identical to yours. My first responder told me to remove all the items from start up in msconfig except the antivirus service.
also in services uncheck all the non-microsoft services again except the microsoft services. I was worried that I would turn off the wrong things but my responder said that nothing will happen to my PC, and don't worry. New processes can be started manually by going to "services.msc".

The credit must go to my responder and not me...I followed inx and it worked very well. Good Luck!

Answer 2

There is a program you can get that will help you determine what can and cannot be turned off on your startup processes. It is called
The Ultimate Troubleshooter. I think you can download a trial version of it, probably from Download.com

Also, Spybot Search And Destroy has a section under Advanced > Tools > System Startup that can give you an idea if a process/program is really needed and you can turn it off.

I would recommend doing an antivirus scan and a spywear scan before using either of these programs. :)

Good luck!

Answer 3

Go to :
Start ---> Run
then type "msconfig"
Click on tab "Startup"
then uncheck the programs you don't need it on system start up