Understanding Processes that run in the Task Manager of your Laptop or PC and Speeding up you system by controlling them.

Have you ever wondered about so many processes running on your computer, which you can see in the window's Task Manager. Ever felt helpless about not knowing them? Came across system hanging when opening a new program or even an explorer?

I am a non-tech person, but my curiosity to understand these processes, and belief in the urban myth that you can find any answer on the internet, gave me a lot of confidence, and to my surprise, I found a lot of answers as well. Now at least I know the good processes and bad processes running on my computer. I have successfully stopped the bad processes, and it has worked wonders in speeding up my laptop and increasing the responsiveness of any new command I give to the system (please read as faster opening of new program e.g., firefox e.t.c.)

Here are few of my findings to understand these processes better:

1. Click on run tab in the start menu and type "msconfig" (without the inverted commas of course). Click on services tab, and you can see all the processes which run automatically when you start the system (one reason why system is slow during the boot up). These processes have good processes as well, which are necessary for windows to function normally, so we can tick in the box at the bottom which says "Hide all Microsoft services". Half of the list will be gone and now you are left with the processes of the programs which you have installed and knowingly or unknowingly allowed them to start with the start of the system. You can see their name in the Manufacturer column. If you find these unnecessary, untick the box and click on apply. (eg, you can allow antivirus software's processes). Keep them to bare minimal and you will be surprised to see the speed at which your system starts in the next bootup.

2. You can download a freeware called "Free Extended task manager" from (http://www.extensoft.com/?p=free_task_manager) which is actually an extension of the window's task manager and can do a lot more than a window's task manager is capable of. For example, if a process is not shutting down even after multiple end task commands, you can see the processes which are running for that program in just a click. You can freeze these processes or end them as well and see the immediate closure. Sometimes even after closing a program, it leaves some processes running on the system, you can use it to end these processes which can slow your system down considerably.

3. A freeware called "Process Lasso" by Bitsum technology can be downloaded from their website (http://www.prolasso.com/prolasso.php). This software helps regulate the processes running in your system and maintaining the responsiveness of your windows to the maximum. It will lower the priority of processes which are not currently in use but are taking too much space, over the program which you are using at the moment. This really speeds up your system and response time quickens.

4. Last but not the least, I have installed the Spyware Terminator, a free spyware from "www.spywareterminator.com" and combined it with ClaimWin Antivirus (ClamAV) from their website (http://www.clamwin.com/), together their database is huge and can identify a long list of viruses. Why I mentioned it here is cause this spyware, does not allow any .exe file to go unnoticed and run without you permission. It could be little time consuming when you are installing a new software, but it shows its worth detecting a virus program's process which tries to run itself without your knowledge. With every pop up to allow or block a process, it also displays information about this process, eg. Manufacturer like Microsoft, adobe, and so on, so you can identify it from which software it is running from. It very well displays type of virus detected and its threat level in the pop-up. All you need to do is click on Allow or Block, and thats it, your system stays clean.

Here we are. Using these 4 steps, a layman like me, can now control the running processes in his system, and keep the system working at good speed without hanging up when opening a new program in the computer. Doing these things, I do not actually remember when my system hanged last time! Isn't it amazing?

All the best!