Computer questions and solutions....thereof...

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#401 Unread post by **dr_bar** » Fri May 02, 2008 9:34 am

For obvious reasons...

Maybe she doesn't need media player running 24/7, or Outlook... Every process that's "Running" is using a bit of that limited RAM that she has...

jonnythan · Fri May 02, 2008 9:43 am

dr_bar wrote:For obvious reasons...

Maybe she doesn't need media player running 24/7, or Outlook... Every process that's "Running" is using a bit of that limited RAM that she has...

Sure, but killing processes using the task manager should be a last resort.

Outlook and Media Player don't keep processes running once you've closed them.

The preferred way to deal with processes running that you don't want running is to disable the service, disable their "start at Windows startup" properties, or remove them from the list of things that get run at Windows Startup manually using msconfig or regedit.

If there's anything you need to go into Task Manager to manually kill, you should be getting rid of it entirely.

Fri May 02, 2008 9:56 am

jonnythan wrote:
blues2cruise wrote:It has been brought to my attention to check how many running processes are running...

So-o-o-o......I used the alt/ctrl/del to bring up the window and then clicked on processes...
There are 55 running processes.....

How do I know which ones to stop running so I can still play?
Why do you want to shut down running processes?

To free up some RAM.
(I'm still on disability payments so I don't have any extra $$ tobuy any more RAM at the present time.)

When I am working on some things my system gets slowed down so much and a couple of times it gave me a message telling me it was out if virtual memory ( I think that was the message) or the computer was "creating" some virtual memory....

Anyway, it was suggested that by shutting down some running processes that it would speed things up because there wouldn't be as much RAM being used.

#404 Unread post by **Skier** » Fri May 02, 2008 10:08 am

blues2cruise wrote:Well...I tried Firefox....I hated it. I uninstalled it.

Why's that?

Also, which version of Internet Explorer are you comparing it to, six or seven?

Fri May 02, 2008 2:55 pm

Skier wrote:
blues2cruise wrote:Well...I tried Firefox....I hated it. I uninstalled it.
Why's that?

Also, which version of Internet Explorer are you comparing it to, six or seven?

After I installed Firefox, the computer slowed up too much. I had even more error reports than usual.

So, I uninstalled and am using IE7.

I had better operation with IE6....but I had to go to 7 in order to update something else.

Ya know.....the computer used to work just fine....the constant updating isn't always such a great thing....

My next system may be a Mac...if and when I ever get working again.

#406 Unread post by **Skier** » Fri May 02, 2008 7:04 pm

What "error reports" did you receive? It really shouldn't do that unless you are so short on hard drive space Windows can't swap out to disk (virtual memory/page file). If that's the case it's not Firefox's fault.

I'm not here to convince you to switch back, I'm curious.

JC Viper · Fri May 02, 2008 9:18 pm

blues2cruise wrote:It has been brought to my attention to check how many running processes are running...

So-o-o-o......I used the alt/ctrl/del to bring up the window and then clicked on processes...
There are 55 running processes.....

How do I know which ones to stop running so I can still play?

You're going to have to go into services by typing services.msc in the Run menu. This gives you a list of services which should also tell you what their process names are. I'd suggest googling "Windows services that can be turned off" before doing anything. You can also google the process that's running to see what it does and if you need to run it.

Nibblet99 · Tue May 06, 2008 11:06 pm

Just another handy tool I stumbled across "what's running" not only shows you running processes, but interrogates them, telling you the manufacturer and description. This, I find, reallly helped me locate whats important and whats not. Probably only suitable for advanced users, but never hurts for amateurs to take a look and learn something new either.

I too hate having lots of background processes running just on pure principal that I never asked for them, and like my machine running as cleanly and quietly (process wise, not volume) as possible.

If you ever wish to try your hand at MSI packaging applications, having a quiet machine is essential

Asside from just processes it'll also show you ip connections with which ports they're running on too. Handy for diagnosing networking issues

Finally the associated website for the program also has a list of process names and their identities you can make use of Blues

http://www.whatsrunning.net/whatsrunning/main.aspx

Wed May 07, 2008 3:06 pm

Skier wrote:What "error reports" did you receive? It really shouldn't do that unless you are so short on hard drive space Windows can't swap out to disk (virtual memory/page file). If that's the case it's not Firefox's fault.

I'm not here to convince you to switch back, I'm curious.

I have scads of hard drive space.....

As for error messages....I get these windows that open up.Windows has encountered an error and must shut down.....Then another box opens up and asks if I would like to send an error report to MS.

I believe the problems occur because of not enough RAM.

It has happened a couple of times when I have been working in photoshop, that I get a message that tells me that the computer is out of RAM and it takes a few minutes and somehow uses the hard drive to make the virtual memory. (I'm sure that's what it said.)

As for Firefox....I tried it once before also and had problems with it.

If I were more computer savvy I might know how to deal with it, but since I don't, I'm better off sticking with IE. (I liked 6 better than 7)

Wed May 07, 2008 3:07 pm

JC Viper wrote:
blues2cruise wrote:It has been brought to my attention to check how many running processes are running...

So-o-o-o......I used the alt/ctrl/del to bring up the window and then clicked on processes...
There are 55 running processes.....

How do I know which ones to stop running so I can still play?
You're going to have to go into services by typing services.msc in the Run menu. This gives you a list of services which should also tell you what their process names are. I'd suggest googling "Windows services that can be turned off" before doing anything. You can also google the process that's running to see what it does and if you need to run it.

Thanks.....I'll go have a look and see what they say...