Quit Some Running Programmes?

[221b]

Hello

My computer takes a long time to start up so have done the ususal msconfig to reduce programmes running on start-up. I'm never sure which ones should or shouldn't be running though nor what half of them mean...

When I ask pcservicecall they say that they only deal with hardware and can't advise on software!

I really want to reduce my CPU usage but not really sure how to go about it. Any suggestions>

Did a spyware sweep just now and it said I had 44 running processes; is that a lot? What should it be?

All contributions gratefully received!

Helen

[Lonnie]

I'm not an expert, but i'd say its your Firewall going through its process first, I have Zone Alarm Pro, and it takes approx 2-4 mins, I did experiment with another that was a lot faster, but it wasn't as good, perhaps somone else can come up with another reason.

[fo3nix]

221b: perhaps you could give us a list of what programs appear in your msconfig startup tab section?

What anti-virus and firewall are you running? Zonealarm, as lonnie says, is slow to start up (I much prefer Kerio Personal Firewall for exactly this reason), and Norton anti-virus type products are known to be a real system hog.

[221b]

I have Avast! Antivirus; AOL has it's own spyware protection running constantly; I have a McAfee firewall that comes with AOL.

I've just changed the start-up items to

• AOL Host Manager


• AOL Dial


• qttask


• ctfmon


• AOL 9.0 tray icon


• Phone Connection


• Windows Update

In the hope that it may speed things up, but I'm unsure how many processes should actually be running in the background.

Many thanks for the pointers so far...

[wideboy]

Have a look at these (especially the first one) but don't get rid of anything unless you're sure (and create a restore point before you do):-

http://www.mikescomputerinfo.com/startup.htm />
http://www.tasklist.org/

http://www.answersthatwork.com/Tasklist_pages/tasklist.htm

http://www.windowsstartup.com/wso/index.php

http://www.lafn.org/webconnect/mentor/startup/

[wideboy]

Those links may not work too well, I'll paste them in separately:-

http://www.mikescomputerinfo.com/startup.htm

http://www.tasklist.org/

http://www.answersthatwork.com/Tasklist_pages/tasklist.htm

http://www.windowsstartup.com/wso/index.php

http://www.lafn.org/webconnect/mentor/startup/

[MTIH1992]

Download something called CodeStuff Starter, this is an easy to use startup manager. De-select everything appart from your Antivirus, Antispyware, and Firewall program. Dont worry about critical system processes, CodeStuff Starter wont display them anyway, so no need to worry about dissabling them.

Matt