how to reduce the running processes of my computer that i am not using?

Answer 1

Mike Lin's Startup Control Panel.

It's Free:

http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml

Turn off everything but your antivirus software.

Answer 2

Understanding what processes the system needs or not is the first step. Others will tell you to use MSCONFIG to stop startup programs. What's wrong with that advice is running it from the command line separates it from the windows file protection system, which means you can stop system critical processes without knowing or being warned. If your new to working with system configuration and process and services management, I would advise you to use "services.msc" instead. It will protect you from doing any harm to the system.
An even better way is a FREE utility from Microsoft called AUTORUNS(link below). It was written by Sysinternals, a company MS bought recently. It has a complete list of everything that starts when you boot. You will be amazed at how much really starts. A good rule of thumb is don't disable anything that lists Microsoft as the owner, and do you changes in small groups, testing by rebooting to make sure there are no problems.
Reading the information about the suspect service will help you make the right decision and this utility is the best there is.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/Utilities/AutoRuns.mspx

enjoy

Answer 3

if you have extra things on your computer like programs that run in the background or things u dont want that take up space, try deleting them. thats what i do, and it helps a lot. this is how: you go to start >> set program access and defaults, and on the side theres something that says add/remove programs. if there are things on the list u didnt even know about, u dont want, or u dont need, delete them, it clears some space and makes things run faster. it reduces the cpu usage as well. (ctrl+alt+del, then preformance)

another way to clear some space and reduce the processes is to go to open up internet, then, on the top thing, where it has home, print, page, tools, favorites, etc, (up where the refresh, back, forward buttons are) click tools, then click internet options, then it says browsing history, click delete, then it will ask what u wanna delete, history, etc. click delete all. it clears ur cache and makes things move quicker. these things help me and i hope they help you too, good luck! :)

Answer 4

Start> Run> Type msconfig click OK
Go to Startup tab uncheck what you don't want.
Reboot.