Vista - Physical Memory at 51% 2.0 GB

I have a tremendous amount of process running (78) and do not know why, my physical memory is at 51% or more most of the time. Computer is running slow when on the internet. How can I clean up these processes that are not needed and are eating away at my memory? This is a new computer, less than 6 months old.

HP DV7
RAM 4.00 GB
64 bit
Intel (R) core (TM) 2 Duo CPU T6400@ 2.00 GHz 2.00 GHz

download startup inspector, its a free program with a user friendly interface. just use this for programs that you think you'd want to run at startup and what you wouldnt like to run at startup, it will stop starting all those processes you dont need to start. (just dont stop the windows processes from microsoft from starting at startup)

Startup Inspector for Windows - Free software downloads and software reviews - CNET Download.com

alternatively press ctrl+shift+esc and then click on the processes tab. every process that's labelled system you dont want to close.

also scan for viruses that's alot

Once you bring up the task manager -> Processes, you can sort by CPU and Memory.

That isn't a lot. I have 80 running occasionally. Try opening up msconfig and looking for which apps you can disable from startup. You can also take a look at Black Viper's service guide.