Metric **** ton of programs running

[Urchin]

Ok, my wife has had this laptop for a little more than a year. It is a T4400 2.2Ghz laptop, with 4 Gigs of RAM. It has started running really slow the past month or so. So I look on task manager and she has 91 programs running.

Is there any way I can

A. Find out what really needs to be on there, and remove what doesn't?
B. Keep this from happening again?

Only way I can figure is googling each and every program she has running and finding out what it is, and then disabling it in the startup menu.

[Bino]

You have to be careful with each and every one.  Sorry.  Wish I had better news for you.  If you kill the wrong process, it is very possible to Do Bad Things.

[Tigger29]

1> Uninstall all programs that aren't used.  This includes speed loaders, auto updaters, any "trial" software and tech support programs.  You simply don't need these.

2> Reboot the computer.  Go into safe-mode at this point (F8 during boot) and run a full system scan with your anti-xxx software just to make sure there aren't any baddies.  Reboot again.

3> At this time I like to disconnect the computer from the network and uninstall all anti-virus/anti-malware/anti-spam (hence the term anti-xxx) software, ESPECIALLY if you have Norton or Mcafee installed.  Those are huge memory and resource hogs, and there are plenty of free anti-xxx softwares available that work reasonably well without being nearly as obtrusive: Microsoft security essentials, Avast, AVG, etc.  Don't re-install any anti-xxx software just yet.

4> Reboot the computer yet again.  You'll be down another 5 or 6 processes.

5> Go into your flash settings, java settings, adobe settings, and any other program that you recognize in the task manager and disable their "update automatically", "load on bootup" and their "make this program load faster" or similar options.  Each program is different, but this stuff is usually buried in the File/Options or Tools/Options menus.  Also do the same with any toolbar icons (bottom right of screen) that you don't use regularly.  Sometimes you can right click on the icon and select Properties or Settings and it will have the option to turn the icon off.  You can turn them off if you don't use them regularly as this will only stop the program that makes the icon appear, but the main program itself will still exist.

6> Go to START/PROGRAMS/STARTUP and delete anything in there that you don't want to load at start-up.  Keep in mind you'll only be deleting the Startup shortcuts for these programs and not the programs themselves so don't be scared to do this.

7> Reboot the computer once again.  At this point hopefully you're down to under 50 processes.  Now you can go in and google each one and see what is normal and what is not.  I've seen these so much I can pretty much pick out what is not normal and what isn't but this can get a little time consuming.  Just google.com and type in the name of the program in the seach bar and you can usually see in the first 5 listings what it is without having to actually click on it (example:  spoolsv.exe).  Ideally you want to do this on another computer so you don't expose the laptop to the internet unprotected.

8> If you find entries for a program know you don't want, then go in and uninstall that program.  If you're not sure, than google the name of that program because some programs depend on other programs in order to work correctly.  One well known program may need another program that you've never heard of and I know it gets confusing, but take your time and you'll eventually weed through it all.  If you don't have an option to uninstall a program then sometimes you can find the uninstaller by going into Drive C, "Program Files", "ProgramName".  If you can't find it there, then try googling "uninstall programname" and you can usually easily find instructions on how to uninstall something.

9> Once you're happy that you've got it all taken care of, then reboot the computer and make sure nothing new comes up, and then you can reinstall whatever anti-xxx software you want.

10> Feel free to visit blackviper.com for information for information on a lot of the most common processes, and also feel free to download a program called "Glary Utilities" which has a lot of neat stuff for keeping your computer maintained.  The thing I like most about it is you can load its startup program list and task manager and it will show you (based on others' comments) how bad or good each program is.  You can also click on each to learn more information about it.  It's pretty neat I highly recommend it.  No need for the pro version, just use the free version.

As far as keeping the computer light and snappy, it's usually a simple matter of going into a programs settings right after you install it and disabling the 'auto update' and 'run when windows starts' options, just keep in mind that it's a good idea to manually update those programs from time to time (after which you'll likely need to go back in and disable those options again)

[100Coogn]

                                                         Black Viper
                                             {Use At Your Own Discretion}  

You might want to read through this.  It shows some of the things you can shut down, but also
shows the default settings, just in case you need them.  I use it and have Vista down to 49 processes.
I'm happy with that number.

Coogan

[Ghosth]

Glary Utilities

In both windows start manager and process manager it has a "search google" option that will take you to a web page that explains exactly what that entry is/does. And if you need it or not.

So it educates you as you work through the various entrys.

[Bino]

Nice list, Tigger!   

[MaSonZ]

Nice list, Tigger!   

+1 I'll be doin that to my machine when i get the intardnet ran back to my room. Thanks Tigger! 

[BaldEagl]

Go to blackviper.com and referene your wife's OS.  It will list all of the OS servies that can be safely turned off.  Anything not on that list is something that the user installed and should be easily identified.  If you an't identify it do a google search.  All servies can be disabled or selected to start manually in the services menu (control panal, administrative tools, services).

Just another thought.  Once you have the services paired down run disc clean-up and then defrag.  By the sounds of it you're wifes never done either.

[Masherbrum]

Glary Utilities

In both windows start manager and process manager it has a "search google" option that will take you to a web page that explains exactly what that entry is/does. And if you need it or not.

So it educates you as you work through the various entrys.

I got Ghosth hooked on Glary Utilities a couple of years ago and it Is a great program.     If you don't have it installed to take advatage of the "google search" option Ghosth described........use this for Task List Programs:

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

[100Coogn]

I got Ghosth hooked on Glary Utilities a couple of years ago and it Is a great program.     If you don't have it installed to take advatage of the "google search" option Ghosth described........use this for Task List Programs:

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

Forgot about that one.  Glary Utilities is a very nice program for killing processes.  Like the Google Search on there too.

Coogan

[DREDIOCK]

Only way I can figure is googling each and every program she has running and finding out what it is, and then disabling it in the startup menu.

you just answered your own question best.
Time consuming but worth it.

BTW you dont always have to disable. You can shut some down and change the setting to "manual" but be sure of what your adjusting. Lotsa BS doesnt need to be running on startup that are obvious. Like most of the automatic updaters, Adobe, and java are two classic examples.

[Lab Rat 3947]

I have XP Pro.
My normal profile has 41 processes running.
Using Blackviper's list, I created a profile for Aces High that has only 19 processes running.
I also do a weekly defrag and use Glary Utilities everyday to keep my machine in shape.

[clerick]

I am currently using IOBit's Game Booster ($8 for full version through D/L).  Have been very happy with it.  It has performed better than Alacrity's program for me.

[Krusty]

Thing is, it's a laptop, right? You're not going to get it as clean as a desktop. It is going to have processes running for battery life monitoring, wifi tracking and connection, wireless security, perhaps because it is a laptop you have a software firewall on there, a mouse touchpad, which requires 2-3 processes sometimes, and any number of other things.

Best thing you can do is take a look at stuff like quicktime startup files, like the MS office task bars that want to be memory resident, etc. Turn them all off. Turn off anything that loads before you actually NEED it to load, like adobe reader and other things like that. Lose webshots. Lose active desktop. Lose the Aero interface (if applicable). Lose the SETI live screenshots, the rss twitter feeds, and the facebook gadgets, if applicable.

Work with the obvious ones before going into the hard to identify ones.

[Tigger29]

Thing is, it's a laptop, right? You're not going to get it as clean as a desktop. It is going to have processes running for battery life monitoring, wifi tracking and connection, wireless security, perhaps because it is a laptop you have a software firewall on there, a mouse touchpad, which requires 2-3 processes sometimes, and any number of other things.

Best thing you can do is take a look at stuff like quicktime startup files, like the MS office task bars that want to be memory resident, etc. Turn them all off. Turn off anything that loads before you actually NEED it to load, like adobe reader and other things like that. Lose webshots. Lose active desktop. Lose the Aero interface (if applicable). Lose the SETI live screenshots, the rss twitter feeds, and the facebook gadgets, if applicable.

Work with the obvious ones before going into the hard to identify ones.

My win7 has battery life monitoring built in.. even for my desktop.  It just isn't running because it is always plugged in.  Wifi tracking?  Any computer with a wireless wifi card will have this and it is also part of windows.  Software firewall?  Already a feature.  Mouse touchpad?  Again it will work as a 'regular mouse' using built-in drivers.  What computer manufacturers tend to do is pile on their own custom software for this stuff ON TOP of the stuff windows is already capable of.  The truth is that probably 99% of this stuff simply isn't necessary.  This goes for both laptops and desktops.

Custom mouse/trackpad software?  I have yet to see a mouse or a pad that won't work with the generic windows mouse drivers.  Will the custom stuff enable extra features?  Well sure!  For example the scroll feature of my netbook's touch pad won't work unless I'm running its touchpad software, but the hardware will still operate without it.  To say all of this bloatware is required simply because it is a laptop is in my opinion ludicrous.  Of course it can be trimmed down just as much as a desktop.  The things that laptops may have that require drivers are no different than the things that desktops may have.  The only difference is that people are led to believe that these things are required because it is a Laptop.

Also since laptops are often expected to be slower and less capable than desktops, people have no problem running all of this extra junk because.. well because they don't plan on using their Laptop for anything more than the basics and as a result aren't nearly as inclined to clean it all up.  Also since notebooks almost never come with a restore disk (and especially not a windows disk)..and sometimes not even an optical drive.. then people are at the mercy of restoring it from a restore partition, which puts all of that junk right back on again.

Simply put, the process of cleaning up a laptop is no different than a desktop.  You may be correct in that maybe a handful of extra processes may need to be running for a laptop (and by handful I'm talking five.. maybe six tops) but there is no reason to think that a laptop MUST be more bloated than its desktop equivalent.  I'm by no means a big supporter of gaming with a laptop, and I'm not arguing the validity of your recommendations... all I'm saying is that your post makes it look like a laptop is required to have much of that bloatware installed.  That simply is not the case.