I have a bunch of pesky processes using up my resources. I launched msconfig, went to the start up tab and found them. Now, how can I tell which to leave on(have to have) and which I can change to optional launch? I turned off a bunch and was unable to enable Norton anti-virus (particularly a bad idea these days) Good advice would be nice!! Thnx

Which process are you considering to be "pesky?" I would just disable those process for now, and see how your machine runs. If it is still running slow/unstable, then consider turning off more. Things that are not needed are things like Quicktime tray, Winamp agent, Netscape agent, Real Player tray, etc. Those, when all running at once, use up a fair ammount of resources and they are not needed at all. Copy a list of some of the things that are running here. Take a screen shot if you can.

Is there a way of identifying which processes relate to which applications? As I mentioned, I lost Norton...not sure what i disabled that made Norton not want to load. I'm at work right now, but tonight I will take screen shots. Thnx for your help

There was a tool that I used about 3 or 4 years ago with Windows 98 called something like "Process Tree." However, it only worked for running processes. IE: "processX.exe is a child of processY.exe" as I recall.

Is "Process Tree" a console tool? Or third party?

I guess I can just follow the path displayed in msconfig back to the application that relies on that process.

Sorry, 3rd party. Last time I saw it, it came bundled with Norton System Works 2003. This link may be of help:
http://www.softwaredirections.com/ptree/
Though I can't remember if that is it for sure or not. Like I said, I haven't used it in 4 years. There is a 3rd party tool out there somewhere called "depends." and you can use it to check what files a .exe or .dll file requires to run. I saw it at a client I work for, but have no clue of it's origin. That is kind of useless information I guess, but maybe you can hunt it down.

Just do like everyone else does--download and run HijackThis (see my Malware article link below) and post the results.

There are also several sites that have startup lists--for example (from my malware links). These will also help identify what's running.

Thanks for your help.
FYI- I downloaded spybot and ran it. Worked great. I can see a big increase in speed and no more lag when gaming. Kazaa wont let me in because of spybot but, oh well. I'm guessing Kazaa is the main source of all these PC parasites anyway.

Hey man,

Here's the best guide around to Windows XP background services:

http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm


Have a good read, work out what you want to disable and what you need to leave, and feel pretty confident about using Black Viper's 'Safe' configuration. You'll end up with a leaner system afterwards.