Computer Process - The Good And The Bad What is? and how to work with it

[eXtreme 0]

Everyone that has adventure into the Windows task manager has already wondered what were all those processes about. Well, processes are computer programs that run behind stage.. back-door programs is another name for them.

 

So, for exemple, let?s suppose (i mean i'm sure you have) a antivirus running on your PC right now. And what's the meaning of a anti-virus? Stop the virus..

 

Yep that's the easy part, but how can they stop it? By running a process that consists on the antivirus detection engine. That single process will look at everything you do, like when you download some file, read a Word document, hear a song, while surfing the web... basically everything.

 

That?s why lots of people with old/slow PC?s have problems when installing antivirus. Because the bigger the process the more memory it will use and, because of that, more slower your computer will get. It's that simple. And normally antivirus and firewalls beat them all when it comes to memory.

 

So it?s always good to check if you don?t have too much processes that are wasting needed memory. They can be programs you don?t use, useless processes that do nothing (but still waste memory) and virus. Yep you heard right. Virus are back-door programs too, and they run by processes also (not all of them though).

 

So you can see how important it is to check your processes and the memory they are using. Though after opening the task manager and going to processes, you?ll see lots and lots of weird names all of them ending in ?.exe?.

 

So how i?m I going to know which process is good or not? Or which one is part of Windows and so cannot be shuted down?

 

Well my solution is going to this website, which is a true process library: ProcessLibrary.com

 

Just do a search by the process name and it will get all the info you need about it. Then based on that search you can check if you have some un-needed process running, for exemple a old program scheduler,  some spyware problems, etc.

 

But remember that not every process is useless and some of them are vital so the windows can keep running. Though i don?t know of anyone that had his windows fail to load or something, because they shuted down some important process, you can be sure you?ll need to restart the PC to get it back working 100%

 

Normally, when someone has a speedy PC, this type of fixes are not really necessary. But for all the people that run slightly slower PC's, or have lots of programs installed, or low memory, then I highly advise that you check your processes.

 

Sometimes it's not the best option to just delete them, but to do some home work and check if that memory wasting process  is still required by one of your programs, and that you don't want to lose, as for exemple the anti-virus process.

 

If you be careful, and try to unnistall for exemple, a unwanted program to get ride of it's also unwanted process, then everything will be fine.

 

Notice from KuBi:

Discussed in PM's. Copied from http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/. Remeber to use

tags in posts even if you've copied it from your own site.(If I quoted the wrong place PM me and I'll fix)

Edited July 23, 2005 by KuBi (see edit history)

[truefusion 3]

But remember that not every process is useless and some of them are vital so the windows can keep running. Though i dont know of anyone that had his windows fail to load or something, because they shuted down some important process, you can be sure youll need to restart the PC to get it back working 100%

If you end a process that windows needs to keep running, and then you restart your computer, i dont see how it'll be 100% on start up. Cause, supposedly this "virus" just got restarted, and it's in the processes again.

Sometimes it's not the best option to just delete them, but to do some home work and check if that memory wasting process is still required by one of your programs, and that you don't want to lose, as for exemple the anti-virus process.

Ending process is different than deleting them. And if it's a smart virus, it'll probably be hiding in another process that windows actually uses.

[Kubi 0]

This doesn't belong in the "What Is..." section. Moved.And btw, ending system proccesses _might_ crash your computer. I wouldn't suggest doing it unless you have to, or know what you're doing.