Ctrl Alt Delete / Task manager

[pingu748]

I currently have 43 processes running according to Task Manager ... a few at 0k but several at between 150k & 5000k+ ... 1: are they all needed ? 2: are they slowing down my pc 3: How the hell do I find out what to leave running & what I can stop .. and how do i stop them starting up again if I dont need them .. Please help !!

[Ethel]

43 is quite good.

The most important part of task manager is the total CPU usage. It should run at between 2 and 4%, with occasional high peaks when some task is working.

If yours is running higher, click on the processes tab, and double click on CPU, twice.
This will bring the processes that are using the most CPU to the top.

It is difficult to know what you can delete or stop working - very often they are not named properly but are essential to the running of the pc.

I assume you mean that some processes are running at 150k memory usage. My guess is that is your browser. If you restart your browser it should show a much lower usage.

What is the total CPU usage?

[pingu748]

The "system idle process" is fluctuating but always over 60 and regularly peaking into the 90's ... explorer, outlook and taskmanager are between 2 +10 ...

[Ethel]

Pingu - system idle process should mostly be over 90. That is just the resources that aren't being used.

It your system is overworked, the system idle will be very low, and the total cpu usage will be over 30%.

It seems as if it is all working as it should.

[pingu748]

Thanks very much ... but that just leads me to another question then ... why when running p'shop 7.0 and nothing else do I get ( when working with filters etc) a triangle with the warning that my virtual memory is low ... am I asking my PC to do something its really not profficient at doing ? If so what would be a recommendation ... RAM / Processor etc ? Got 60Gb HD ...

[Ethel]

Have a read of this:

http://www.microsoft.com/atwork/getstarted/pcp roblems.mspx

[stevie21]

There's a program called "Security Task Manager" which is the same as Task Manager except that it tells you more info on each process, what bit of software needs it to run and if it's likely to be a virus. Without that you can type in the name of the process to google and a site there will tell you exactly what it is.
If you need to tinker with your Virtual Memory be v.careful, I think this is a bit of a dodgy thing to be messing about with. How much RAM do you have on your PC? XP and a Photo editing bit of software like PSP can be quite demanding so it might benefit you to put more RAM in.