Too many processes/Avast! anti-virus.

[BnZ]

Hi. I recently had my computer "cleaned" after a nasty virus infection. This meant a re-install of windows.

I disabled every background process in "services" Skuzzy recommends, but I still have 27 processes running in the background. I do not know which, where, or how to begin shutting down anymore. Do I need to type a list of the processes shown when I bring up task manager and post it?

Also, when I got it home the computer shop had installed a "complimentary" anti-virus program called Avast. While I can turn it "off" the scan for AHII play, I cannot figure out how to turn the program completely off. Several of the background processes I see in task manager appear to be related to it, but when I try to shut them down using "end process", it gives me an "access denied" message!!! Anyway, any help on how to turn this off when I want to play AHII or just plain get rid of the program if that is not an option, much appreciated

Keep in mind, I'm not technical with computers (but you already knew that)

<S>

BnZ

[007Rusty]

I use FSauto start shuts down all the stuff you dont need, its easy to set up to.Even I can do it.

[Fulmar]

#1 27 processes is pretty good low number of processes running.  Even in the 30's in a excellent number.  The average PC I run across has about 40-45 running.  When you're in the 50's is when you're really bogging down the system.

#2 IIRC, Avast runs about 5-7 separate processes.  You should be able to Exit or Stop the scans etc by right clicking on the system tray icon.

#3 A CTRL-ALT-DEL end process isn't going to work with good anti-viruses.  The reason why is if a virus does get on the system, it would have the potential to completely shut down the anti-virus scanner and do total havok, not sneaky havoc if it got past the virus scanner.

[Kuhn]

I use FSauto start shuts down all the stuff you dont need, its easy to set up to.Even I can do it.

Agreed. Excellent program.  I just wish that someone would update it.

[Skuzzy]

27 processes is not bad.  If the CPU useage percentage mostly stays at 0 and never goes above 2% and only hits 2% occasionally, then you have a pretty clean system.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

Heh my gaming pc runs 22 processes, 1 of which is this firefox I'm typing with and 7 others are non critical apps such as sandboxie, punkbuster services etc. gaming or browsing related.

[BaldEagl]

I'm running in the high 20's.  If you need to shut more stuff down you can always do a Google search on each remaining process.  There are always articals which explain what they do and if they are critical or not.

[Getback]

For some reason my gaming system is runing at 4% to 7% even after I shut down many processes. With them all going it uses about 5% to 8%. I'm confounded. The biggest culprit seems to be iexlorer.exe and Svchost.exe. Svchost is on there 3 times. At idle these two processes are way over 20,000k of usage.

My other computer which is loaded with more programs runs at 0 to 2% and only has 2 gigs of memory. I'm just not sure what is going on. Has confounded me for several months now.

[BnZ]

Thanks for the help guys.

I WILL have to find what else I need to shutdown, CPU usage is bouncing anywhere from 2-7% just sitting there.

[BaldEagl]

The biggest culprit seems to be iexlorer.exe and Svchost.exe. Svchost is on there 3 times. At idle these two processes are way over 20,000k of usage.

My other computer which is loaded with more programs runs at 0 to 2% and only has 2 gigs of memory. I'm just not sure what is going on. Has confounded me for several months now.

Google search is your friend.  The second entry in a search for Svchost.exe:

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/what-is-svchostexe-and-why-is-it-running/

[MrRiplEy[H]]

By the way Avast is no longer on my recommended av programs list. I witnessed a machine with 6 malware infections and avast running.

Nod32 free online scan cleaned them up though. I would use Antivir at the moment for a free av and Nod32 for paid version. Regular scanning with eset free online scan utility helps loads if you decide to run without av like I have (on my gaming box).

Not that I've found anything for years on my computers. Other people seem to be able to pick stuff up - and they curiously all use IE6 or IE7 for browsing.. hmm..

[Ghosth]

AVG free, I'm running 8. Has some slightly annoying nags but hey, it was free.

I back that up with threatfire because I've been known to open some rather nasty stuff in the past accidentally.

I love it when a trojan kicks into gear and gets slammed to the mat by threatfire asking me if I want to allow this process.
The 2 together make a very good low impact combo.

[Skuzzy]

If you use Internet Explorer, at its default security settings, then your computer is open to the world for infestation by almost anything. Of course, that is also true for Outlook, Outlook Express, or anything that uses the Internet in conjunction with java, javascript, ActiveX, Flash and many other delivery mechanisms used by the bad guys.

[BnZ]

Huh...I've been using Mozilla Firefox as my Web browser ever since I got this thing back from the shop, got javascript turned off for it. Anything else I can do to make the system more secure?

[Denholm]

When gaming my comp runs 16 processes.