What processes should I be running?

[colt45]

Hi, Could anyone tell me which of these processes I should be running? I have no idea what most of them are, or if they are needed, so if anyone can point me in the right direction I would greatly appreaciate it, as I would hate to stop any of them running without knowing whether they are needed or not

All the best,
Steven

ctfmon.exe
redirect4.exe
jusched.exe
wowexec.exe
remind.exe
ntvdm.exe
cisvc.exe
alg.exe
spoolsv.exe
avgcc32.exe
svchost.exe
svchost.exe
svchost.exe
svchost.exe
taskmgr.exe
lsass.exe
services.exe
csrss.exe
cidaemon.exe
smss.exe
devldr.exe

[dodecahedron]

ctfmon.exe - this has to do with the language bar stuff and MS office.
even if you kill it, it will return.
just ignore it, it's harmless.

taskmgr.exe - that's the Task Manager

the others - i don't know.
but i suspect you don't have to get rid of any of them, they're probably all fine (part of Windows or applications you use).

avgcc32.exe - i'm guessing here, you use AVG antivirus?

you can learn about some of these at least in this site:
http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_index.htm

[colt45]

Thanks for your help Dodecahedron, you're right about the anti-virus one, I was thinking maybe one of those things might be a trojan or something that was taking up resources or something (you have to excuse the lack of knowledge here I'll check out that link as well,

thanks again for your help,
Steve

[dodecahedron]

i suspect that spoolsv.exe, svchost.exe, lsass.exe, services.exe are legitimate WinXP processes, you shouldn't terminate them or you might kill Windows.
i've no idea what devldr.exe does but i know it's a Windows thing, killing it in Task Manager doesn't do anything harmful in my experience (it sometimes comes back, i guess it's restarted by whatever needs it).

[colt45]

Thanks again for the extra ideas, I checked out that link you posted, a lot of great information there, it will help me all the more

Thanks again
Steve

[dodecahedron]

welcome

[eliminator]

"google" the stuff you're not sure about - lotsa answers there to !

[redk9258]

Hi, Could anyone tell me which of these processes I should be running? I have no idea what most of them are, or if they are needed, so if anyone can point me in the right direction I would greatly appreaciate it, as I would hate to stop any of them running without knowing whether they are needed or not

All the best,
Steven

ctfmon.exe
redirect4.exe
jusched.exe
wowexec.exe
remind.exe
ntvdm.exe
cisvc.exe
alg.exe
spoolsv.exe
avgcc32.exe
svchost.exe
svchost.exe
svchost.exe
svchost.exe
taskmgr.exe
lsass.exe
services.exe
csrss.exe
cidaemon.exe
smss.exe
devldr.exe

I recomend a trip to http://www.safer-networking.org and download Spybot - Search & Destroy. Read the docs carefully and you'll find a lot of info.
Another great program is Ad Aware by Lavasoft... http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/
Also try here.. http://www.answersthatwork.com/Tasklist ... sklist.htm

[colt45]

Thanks for more info Eliminator, I always seem to forget the most obvious things, and redk I'll definately give those links and programs a good workout

Thanks again everyone for all your help and sugestions,
Steve

Kool I just became a thug! lol

[dodecahedron]

Kool I just became a thug! lol

congrats!

[colt45]

[stix]

I found this page to be useful:

http://www.liutilities.com/products/win ... sslibrary/

scroll down to the items under the heading:
"System Processes Listed in the WinTasks Process Library"
then click on an item to see an explanation.

[colt45]

Hey Stix thanks for your reply, I didn't expect anyone to read this after all this time

Steven

[stix]

you're welcome.