Unnecessary Processes in Vista

I just opened up Task Manager on my computer, and of course there are about 70 to 100 different processes running at any given time. While I do realize that some of these are needed and some redundancy (ie. svchost) is to be expected, I also know that many of these do not need to be running, my question is, how do I identify which ones they are, and how do I turn them off? I would post a list of the processes, but alas, the list is too long for a print screen and there is no way (that I know of) to copy/paste the list to a text file.

Go to search
type
snipping tool
Then make an screen image. It may take two or three, but upload to us.
http://tweakhound.com/vista/tweakguide/page_7.htm
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/speed-up-or-disable-windows-search-indexing-in-vista/

Finally BlackViper is considered the ultimate guide
http://www.blackviper.com/Windows_7/servicecfg.htm

Exercise extreme caution when disabling services and make a list to restore if necessary.
Do one at a time so you will be familiar with any unpleasant consequences

Here's what I have running in the background right now. Keep in mind when looking at the list that
1) there are 3 images, but the third is strictly precautionary, it may all be redundant.
2) all that I can SEE running in the foreground are, Firefox, Windows Updater, Dropbox, HP Digital Imaging Monitor, Sidebar, Adobe Photo Downloader and Norton 360

Using the lists that I gave you go to services and diable the ones that are listed, if you are comfortable.
You may want to concentrate on the process that use the most cpu.
If you have questions, we can work together, since we now have the process in question.
You can click on the headings to list by usage
You can also include memory usage by going to view and select column
It wil make it easier for you to determine the services that you want to remove. Start with the resource hogs for memory and cpu.

Hi Pointman,

I recommend you download and install and run Process Explorer: Process Explorer which will provide much more information about each process. If you right click on the header bar, you can add columns to show much more information. This will help you immensely in determining what each process is all about and what is generating it. It is not only for services, but for all types of processes and so I think it will be very useful for the many processes that aren't services that you can safely disable (or services at all - many are programs running in the background besides those you actually see in use and Process Explorer will help you determine what each of them is - then you can ask us about those you can't decide about on your own as I believe you'll be able to identify most).

I hope this helps.

Good luck!

Although process explorer does provide more information, and it can be used. I think that in this situation you can use either method.
Process explorer is great when trying to diagnose.
The choice is yours
You may want to run Exploreer, if you choose that route, without downloading, run from the site. We dont want to add to resource usage.
But again choose what is best for you.

Hi Pointman,

We discussed how to identify the processes, and how to minimize services, but not really how to reduce the processes (as simply ending the task on the process may resolve the immediate problem, but chances are good it will return the next time you boot if it is in startup or task scheduler or someplace similar).

Go to Start / Search options and type in msconfig and enter and then double click on the program icon that appears. Go to the startup tab and uncheck any program that you don't need starting at startup. That will probably be the majority of items there - if not most of them (some are needed like the AV program and Windows Defender but most are there to make opening the source programs faster and make you think they're more efficient and some are there to automatically check for updates which could also be done manually when you actually use the program and there are other reasons as well - some useful and some not). This will free up a lot of RAM and eliminate a lot of running processes and help a lot in making your system faster (though perhaps not so much that you'll be able to notice the difference - but maybe depending on how much unnecessary stuff is loading at startup). When I did this on my system I removed over 90% of the entries and suffered no ill effects – to the contrary, I noticed startup was quicker, response times when working were better and I could open more programs at the same time and still have no problems, and shutdown was also faster. Better still, download Autoruns http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902.aspx which is much superior to msconfig and click on the Everything tab and do what was suggested above (though here you can’t uncheck everything as with the start menu in msconfig because there are some very important files and services included which MUST not be unchecked or it can cause serious harm to the system). If unsure, leave it alone or post here, give us the details, and ask.

I hope this helps.

Good luck!

Looks like you have been given many choices. However you may want to start with the simple way first, if that does not satisfy your needs you can start to download other software.

Thanks guys, I'll get to that task once my BSOD issue is resolved. I appreciate the info, I'll go over it and decide on my next course of action in a few days. I'll keep you posted.

That woiuld be good. In the meantime the BSOD is the most important problem. You cant use speed if you have BSOD all the time.

I wonder if that really is the simplest way. Lacking information about the processes will require a constant back-and-forth to get assistance with those that are unknown (and if known, this thread wouldn't have started). Process Explorer will cut that down considerably.

As far as msconfig or Autoruns goes, those are not only good in this situation (and easier to understand), but a common part of normal maintenance or performance enhancement. We recommend that even when not addressing a process-related problem where they are more applicable than ever.

It is your computer and your decision. We have done our best to recommend the options we think are most applicable (and while we differ on which is the best with which to start, we agree they are all appropriate to the situation), but ultimately, the choice is yours.

I hope this helps.

Good luck!

P.S. And of course, the BSOD takes precedence. I wasn't aware that was also an issue here, but I totally agree with Richard that it's more important to resolve that before addressing this.

Since I wont be running the RAM check until tonight I thought I would have a look at my System Config and check out what was listed under Start Up, this is what I found. (Keep in mind, some of these I have JUST unchecked)

A couple seem a little odd, suspicions even. Tell me what you think.

Interesting turn of events, after going into System Config and turning off some of the Start Up applications, I now no longer get the BSOD on reboot, it doesn't even hang on shut down anymore. So apparently one of the applications I turned off are the culprit, I just need to figure out which one and deal with it. I will re post this in my other forum as well.

Great solve it with a clean boot
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929135

LOL just got two threads that I need to answer, both from you.

Ill bet its the antivirus software.

Before I do, do I re-enable the services I disabled earlier?

Put everything back and then use clean boot. That will determine if a startup program is the cause of the problem.

Yeah, I realized it was a stupid question on my part 30 seconds after I hit the Enter key, but alas, the damage was done! LOL

On a more serious note, after step one of the Clean Boot, I first got another BSOD stating PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA and now when I reboot, I simply get a black screen with the mouse cursor after login. YIKES! Haven't tried Safe Mode yet.

Ok, Safe Mode works, so that's something. What's next?

If you get it in clean boot but not safe mode, we go back to the other theread and give you a driver verifier test.

Hi Pointman,

Thanks for the screenshots. When you get back to this again, please expand the Name and Command columns so as much as possible can be read (with preference to the Command column). If you have to move the Command column so it is on top of and hiding the Manufacturer column that's fine. Then please show me the screenshots again. While interesting for a number of reasons (for one, the number of Microsoft items - I have only one even listed let alone checked on my system - and what appear to be duplicates of others), I can't tell what they are all doing because the Command column doesn't show the files. If you can do two screenshots for each (expanding the Location column in the second shot but keeping the name column big enough so I can tell which one it is), that would be even more helpful. Of course, if you also downloaded Autoruns, you could just save the file (as an Autoruns file) and zip the file (right click on the saved file and click send to and click zipped folder) and then attach the zipped folder to your next post and I would get it all (well, both much more - as it includes everything and not just startup program - and a little less - as it doesn't show the registry location) - but that's up to you. Then I will be able to tell you much more about each of the items. You've already made quite a bit of progress in unchecking items and I'm sure we can make more.

While the BSOD may well be the AV software as Richard suspects - it often can be (which I can't even identify in the startup listing and that's surprising to me on its own), I'm more inclined to be thinking the NVidea drivers - but that will be determined in the other thread (and I'm not a BSOD specialist). The fact that you did this (even if not thinking BSOD at the time), helped with the BSOD problem quite a bit - I'm glad you proceeded with the check because it helped narrow down the potential causes significantly and essentially proved there is a solution. It also showed you how many items could be removed without causing problems (and in fact solving them) - and I suspect there are even more we can remove once we can see all of them.

But in the meantime, please concentrate on the BSOD problem (despite how doing this helped there) and we'll return to this once that is resolved. I now believe we can make some significant progress and improve things greatly with these methods once we more accurately identify exactly what's there and what's really needed.

We'll see you back here once the BSOD is resolved.

Thanks and good luck.

Thanks Lorien, once I get this BSOD issue resolved, I'll be back.