WinXP processes

[Vic Mackey]

got a question for y'all :D i have Windows XP Home and when i hit ctrl-alt-delete it says i have 22 processes running. is this normal? doesnt that eat up alot of my RAM? i have 256mb RDRAM. just wondering :D

[Micro]

Why do you care?
Isn't that why you bought the ram anyway, to be used?
It does little good just sitting there doing nothing.

[MadDoctor]

Go to start>settings>control panel>administrative tools>services. That will give you a list of the things... and most of them are necessary. Most of them are not running (using CPU or RAM) but enabled in the event they are needed.

[Lobo]

Check your services folder, in you search engine type services in XP and find site that will walk you through it, it will mess you up bad if you turn off something you need


Windows/system32:)

[MadDoctor]

Originally posted by Micro
Why do you care?
Isn't that why you bought the ram anyway, to be used?
It does little good just sitting there doing nothing. It's good to be familiar with processes running on your computer. If you get a Trojan, you’ll know it because you knowing what processes are run during "normal" startup.

Everyone wants to maximize the use of RAM and/or the CPU. If the RAM is being used by a runaway program, you should be concerned about RAM use and terminate the process.

[Lobo]

10-fer:) :)

[Micro]

Originally posted by MadDoctor
It's good to be familiar with processes running on your computer. If you get a Trojan, you’ll know it because you knowing what processes are run during "normal" startup.

Everyone wants to maximize the use of RAM and/or the CPU. If the RAM is being used by a runaway program, you should be concerned about RAM use and terminate the process.

Ok, I'll buy that.
It's just that with the move to NT and the ease of seeing what is running and what it uses, that wasn't easily visible in Win9x, there exists a fetish for turning off services.
Way too few know what is normal or what is necessary or needed, yet every other "Windows" site deals with what services to turn off.
Yet, they have no idea what half of them REALLY do or whether the user actually needs them or not, or whether they are even more than just started.

I guess I could have been a little clearer, I just hate to see clueless folks telling people to turn off services for no good reason, especially because they think "it will get back memory", they "think" they need, when they have no real clue as to how memory management works in NT. Crap, most have no clue as to what a pagefile even is, they think it's a swapfile fer gawd's sake.
[rant off]

[mnosteele52]

Micro is right, most services aren't going to make a difference whether they are off or on, there are a few that can be disabled if your pc is standalone but most don't matter. But I would definitely add more RAM, 256 is the absolute minimum for XP, bump it up to 512 and you will see a BIG performance boost.:) :D

[Cypher_138]

Check here~~~~>http://www.blkviper.com.

Run Adaware also to be sure you don't have any syware running.
Disabled services that are not needed = less exploits.;)

[Lobo]

Gee, think I'll buy puter with 8 Megs of RAM and get it:rolleyes:

[Ploxhoi]

Tweaktown has a pretty good guide on tweaking XP.

There is a section that tells you what processes you are most like not going to be using. Word for the wise though, read about them. You might want something to remain on, even though they say you do not need it.

http://www.tweaktown.com/document.php?dType=guide&dId=324

[Vic Mackey]

hehe cypher_138, ya i was at that site yesterday. thats why i was asking about this. i used the "Safe" setting instead of "Gaming" setting cause they said some programs might not run in "Gaming". sheesh Micro, take a chill pill:p ill get more RAM sometime but it costs 139.99 for 256mb RDRAM at microcenter. doesnt RDRAM have to be put into a computer in pairs? well when i opened my computer to clean it (with water.... JUST KIDDING!:D )i only had 1 stick of RDRAM. theres a special type that doesnt need to be paired isnt there? thanks for link Ploxhoi!:D

[Lobo]

sheesh Micro, take a chill pill


The net police, stop meds, he needs them:D

[Andrzej]

2 mths ago I resuscitated my best friend laptop (strong & 2k)
after swich on it did not want work at all.
removing to many prg from start-up was a succesfull methode.

:D so by the first check your start-up, autorun ect
what do you realy need on background???
then
;)think about increasing amound of RAM or CPU upg

[Lobo]

The easiest thing to do is get alot of RAM, you want system restore on and other programs, get 768 or 1024 Megs of RAM:)

[Andrzej]

or even more
never ending story:D

supplement
links to start-up thread
http://www.aumha.org/a/loads.php
http://aumha.org/kbstrtup.php
http://www.forrestandassociates.co.uk/pcforrest/startups.html
http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_content.htm

[Micro]

Originally posted by Vic Mackey
hehe cypher_138, ya i was at that site yesterday. thats why i was asking about this. i used the "Safe" setting instead of "Gaming" setting cause they said some programs might not run in "Gaming". sheesh Micro, take a chill pill:p ill get more RAM sometime but it costs 139.99 for 256mb RDRAM at microcenter. doesnt RDRAM have to be put into a computer in pairs? well when i opened my computer to clean it (with water.... JUST KIDDING!:D )i only had 1 stick of RDRAM. theres a special type that doesnt need to be paired isnt there? thanks for link Ploxhoi!:D

Vic the whole point is there are only 1 or 2 services you could need to turn off and even that is totaly dependent on how you are protected against exploits, as cyPHer_138 hinted at.

I didn't tell you that you needed more memory, only that what you had was there to be used, not sit idle.
256meg of Rdram is more than enough for most gaming.
More is better, of course, but not essential.

Add up the memory used actually used by services that are started and you'll see it doesn't really add up to much, with many services consuming none.
You can balance this against what you may need to turn off for your own security reasons, beyond that turning off services just for the sake of a couple megs of memory is just plain dumb and in some cases will create problems that do not seem to be memory related.