Task Manager

[Heretic]

Gents,

Could someone please tell me what tasks are required to run my computer and what tasks I can shut down to run the game.  My CPU usage is at 100%   I must have some serious spyware in the computer even after running AD Aware,SPyBOt,and CW Shredder.

I have no idea what tasks can be turned off and still keep the computer running.

Any suggestions for a good spyware removal besides the three I use now?   How about a good pop up blocker as well?

I appreciate all the help.

Thanks again Roy for the help this morning on the phone.   I was able to connect this time for a little bit.   I'm gonna whip this problem one way or another.

[Heretic]

I did a search on this topic which I should of done b4 I ran this thread.    I will use BlackVipers page and carefully go over what services I need to run my system.    

Thanks

[heatedpitot]

Originally posted by SEgunner
I did a search on this topic which I should of done b4 I ran this thread.    I will use BlackVipers page and carefully go over what services I need to run my system.    

Thanks

I use a different site that seems to be much more informative with explanations of the different services for both WinXP Home & WinXP Pro, rather than the BlackVipers site.  My OS is WinXP Home and I only have 15 to 16 background services running.

http://www.theeldergeek.com/

site also has many more informative services available.  To find the particular page for  background services running on your system look in the left hand margin under System  then select "System Services Guide" page.   There you will find just about all the things that may be running in the background of your system.

I certainly have found this site very useful in combating WinXP Home's odd quirks for folks not very familiar with OS's "in's" and "out's".

Hope this helps,

SS10

[Clifra Jones]

In task manager most if not all the critical systems tasks will not let you kill them. You can go into services and stop un-need services though you need to be carefull here. If you are curious about a process running in Task Manager the best thing I've found is to just go to google and type in the name of the task. You should find a page that will tell you what the task is and if it's OK to stop it. There are a lot of programs that load up stuff you don't really need. I know my Creative Sound software loaded about 3 processes that I never use so I removed them from the startup registry key HKLM/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Run.

Scuzzy has a good listing in this forum of services that are safe to stop. You won't want to disable all of these as you may need them when not in AH. An easy way to prepare your machine for AH is to create 2 batch files to stop and start services.

to stop a service you want
net stop service name

to start a service you want
net start service name

Put a line for each service you want to stop and start in each batch file. Then before going on-line run the stop batch file and when your done run the start batch file.

Unfortunatly you can't really do this for processes loading in the RUN key if you think you need them when not in AH because the only way to kill a process in a batch file would be to use the kill command from the support tools (which are on your Windows CD and can be installed in your system) because it requires the process ID (PID) not the name and that changes every time it's loaded.

You will have to do this manually through task manager.

Warning! the kill command will let you kill critical system processes! You could disable your system with it and have to cold restart your system (push the power button)

Hope this helps.

[heatedpitot]

Cliffra Jones;

I was only giving my opinion here on how & what services can be stopped safely and I have found that the Web site of:

http://www.theeldergeek.com/

gives much better explanations of the different "Services" and what they do and are related to as far as WinXP Home/Pro as COMPARED to the BlackViper Web site.

As stated in my previous post, using the "theeldergeek" Web site I only have 15 to 16 background services running on a WinXP system and my system has never crashed and is stable as Gilbrater.

Take it for what its worth,  " 2 cents " maybe ?

[Heretic]

Thanks to the both of you.   I appreciate it very much.    I called Roy the other day and had a conversation with him about this topic.    He helped clarify some of the services that he knew that go with Windows XP Home.  

I can now run the game after a  three weeks of not playing because of this.      I still have about 30 services running but the game is rock solid and I do not have any glitches what so ever!

 Roy!   I appreciate your time on the phone.

[MaddogJoe]

I used the viper site myself, and also use this program FSAutostart. Once configured it shuts down everything you don't need including printer stuff and all other background programs. Then when you close the game, it automatically restarts all those background programs again.

PestPatrol has a free scan that will locate other spyware that Adaware misses. You have to purchase the program for it to automatically remove problem files and folders, but they give you the info to hunt them down manually if you DON'T want to spend the cash.

After you get cleaned out, NEVER use IE again ! It allows in so many pieces of adware and other trash that you'll forever by cleaning your computer! Anyone of the Netscape type browser are good at keeping things clean, tho they don't always display some pages right. They have trouble with some of the HTC pages. Opera and Avant browser work well for an IE type browser and will display HTC score pages. They are much better security wise too. Since I started running the Opera browser my spam mail has dropped to almost nothing.

[Heretic]

I just downloaded Mozilla for my new web browser.   I will not use IE ever again on my home computer.

[OOZ662]

If you ever want to find out about a single process, check this out.

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