How do I reduce the number of processes on my computer?

[snewdle]

Hi everyone,

So I just purchased a new Vaio Z, and have finally configured it to my liking after several hours. However there is still one major problem that I still have. When I open up the task manager, it says that there are ~100 processes running and taking up ~45-50% of my RAM (I have 4GB). How should I go about both figuring out which ones I don't need and permanently disabling them? Any suggestions are greatly appreciated, as this is the last step I really need to take to optimize my laptop. Thanks!

 

[Blain]

Charley Sparks can help you.

 

[yinan]

Dont do this. Any gains will be minimal and you will be causing yourself more greif than benefit.

 

[Blain]

Dont do this. Any gains will be minimal and you will be causing yourself more greif than benefit.

* What exactly is "this" that is so hazardous?
* Are you assuming that snewdle will dive headlong into making changes without the appropriate reading before hand?

 

[yinan]

Yes I am. I used to play this game and spent a lot of time tweaking stuff like this with very little performance gain.

It has been researched and doing things like this end up being more headaches than it is worth.

 

[snewdle]

Yes I am. I used to play this game and spent a lot of time tweaking stuff like this with very little performance gain.

It has been researched and doing things like this end up being more headaches than it is worth.

My primary concern is the fact that just under half of my RAM is being used while my computer simply sits about idly without doing anything. Isn't this an issue?

 

[WildHorse]

``

 

[WildHorse]

``

 

[snewdle]

Overall, by entering your msc services (start/run/services.msc or start/control panel/administrative tools/services


and changing the various services from "automatic" to "manual" or "disabled."
Usually people find the services Microsoft pre-set to start automatically are too many, to accommodate remote eventualities of true need.
So you can change the services to start only Manually, or altogether Disabled. There are a lot of Windows tweaking guides on the web that recommend which services to set at which level (auto, manual, disabled).
Lookup http://www.blackviper.com/ for one such widely popular site.

Another, that I used to use was http://unattended.msfn.org/unattended.xp/view/web/17/


Also, aside from "overall startup Windows configuration" mentioned above, you can ALSO change what's running ON THE FLY.
If you're using Windows XP then install Windows
Process Explorer v14.01

By Mark Russinovich
( http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx ) which lets you kill any process running.
If you're on WIndows Vista I don't have a clue.

If you're on WIndows 7 then go into Start /All Programs / Accessories /System Tools /Process Monitor, and that is more or less same as the above mentioned Process Explorer; it lets you kill processes running on the fly, but remember, next time you boot up, whatever you killed will start running afresh.

EDIT: Well I don't understand why my above link to Process Explorer isn't working. Just search PRocess Explorer & you'll find ir .

Cool thanks for the info. I'll take a look at this later today when I have time and try to get rid of some of this crap. 103 processes right now and that is just ridiculous IMO!

 

[WildHorse]

``

 

[Blain]

Lookup http://www.blackviper.com/ for one such widely popular site.

Black Viper is...

Charley Sparks.

 

[lxskllr]

How are you determining how much ram is being used? Using Black Viper's "tweaks" results in worse performance on XP. I doubt they somehow started working well on Vista or Win7....

 

[snewdle]

How are you determining how much ram is being used? Using Black Viper's "tweaks" results in worse performance on XP. I doubt they somehow started working well on Vista or Win7....

Down at the bottom of the "Processes" tab in Task Manager it says how many processes are currently running, the CPU usage, and Physical Memory. My Physical Memory is constantly at 45-50%. Did I interpret this incorrectly?

 

[Nothinman]

My primary concern is the fact that just under half of my RAM is being used while my computer simply sits about idly without doing anything. Isn't this an issue?

No, it's not. Idle processes aren't using any CPU and their memory will be paged out if memory gets tight. But with 4G that's highly unlikely anyway. Most of that 50% is probably the filesystem cache and other things that you want in memory for performance reasons.

That and taskmgr's numbers aren't entirely accurate because it's very difficult, if not impossible, to accurately account for all memory in a system. One reason is because things like shared libraries tend to get counted multiple times because multiple processes have them mapped into their VM space and having the code run through all memory to account for that would take too long. So instead you get a rough number that doesn't actually mean what you think it does because it's "good enough".

 

[snewdle]

No, it's not. Idle processes aren't using any CPU and their memory will be paged out if memory gets tight. But with 4G that's highly unlikely anyway. Most of that 50% is probably the filesystem cache and other things that you want in memory for performance reasons.

That and taskmgr's numbers aren't entirely accurate because it's very difficult, if not impossible, to accurately account for all memory in a system. One reason is because things like shared libraries tend to get counted multiple times because multiple processes have them mapped into their VM space and having the code run through all memory to account for that would take too long. So instead you get a rough number that doesn't actually mean what you think it does because it's "good enough".

Ok. But regardless isn't the fact that I have ~100 processes running a bit much?

 

[Nothinman]

Ok. But regardless isn't the fact that I have ~100 processes running a bit much?

Why? Right now I've got ~127 on my Win7 laptop and ~222 on my home Linux machine.

 

[disports]

I have 40 on my Windows 7 desktop Dang 222 is nuts!

 

[Nothinman]

I have 40 on my Windows 7 desktop Dang 222 is nuts!

It's really not, the number of processes means almost nothing. I'm running Chrome on both systems, so each tab is it's own process, but large parts of them are shared because of the way VM and child processes work. And I tend to leave anything I open running so I've got a bunch of day to day work things running like Outlook, Acrobat Reader, MS SSMS, etc. All of those idle processes don't hurt performance at all.

And the Linux number will almost always be higher because threads, userland and kernel, appear as processes so that's 11 just for the NFS kernel server alone. And just like on Windows, idle processes have no adverse affects on performance.

 

[snewdle]

It's really not, the number of processes means almost nothing. I'm running Chrome on both systems, so each tab is it's own process, but large parts of them are shared because of the way VM and child processes work. And I tend to leave anything I open running so I've got a bunch of day to day work things running like Outlook, Acrobat Reader, MS SSMS, etc. All of those idle processes don't hurt performance at all.

And the Linux number will almost always be higher because threads, userland and kernel, appear as processes so that's 11 just for the NFS kernel server alone. And just like on Windows, idle processes have no adverse affects on performance.

Hmmm... I dunno what to do! D:

 

[Nothinman]

Hmmm... I dunno what to do! D:

Nothing, so far you haven't said that you're having any actual problems. All you've said is that you have some OCDish problem with the number of processes running...

 

[snewdle]

Nothing, so far you haven't said that you're having any actual problems. All you've said is that you have some OCDish problem with the number of processes running...

Hey! All I was worried about was the fact that so many processes were there.

 

[VirtualLarry]

All you've said is that you have some OCDish problem with the number of processes running...

Nothingman speaks the truth.

 

[Cogman]

Hey! All I was worried about was the fact that so many processes were there.

The number of processes, and even to a large extent, the amount of ram being used doesn't matter. What matters is
A. Is all the ram being used?
B. Is the CPU fully utilized?

Beyond that, you could have 100000 processes running and I still wouldn't be concerned.

Empty ram is wasted ram. So you saying "my ram is half full" says to me "My ram is half empty." Windows and other operating systems do a lot to try and keep stuff in ram. That is because ram usage is practically free.

As for running processes, the default processes that come with windows spend 99% of their time sleeping... Don't tweak the windows defaults, you'll gain nothing (except a possible headache).

 

[lxskllr]

The only processes I'd worry about is due to oem crapware that gets bundled with computers, laptops especially. Just make sure the stuff isn't redundant junk. you can uninstall those packages, and the processes will go away. Other than that, I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[officialtekniq]

I'm running Windows 7 on a 1GB memory laptop, only having less than 35 processes and under 330 threads while idling. With G. Chrome open, that rises to around 40 processes and just under 400 threads being used.

Here are the services that I am running. Please do keep in mind, I am not responsible for any damage that happens to your comp, apply the following at your own risk.
(Open Run and type services.msc)
-Application information
-CNG Key isolation (disable if NOT using WiFi)
-COM+ Event System
-DCOM Server Process Launcher
-DHCP Client
-DNS Client (supposedly less stress on CPU at boot)
-Extensible Authentication Protocol
-Group Policy Client
-Microsoft Antimalware Service (I think it's from Microsft Security Essentials)
-Network Connections
-Network list Service (set to manual)
-Network Location Awareness
-Network Store Interface Service
-Plug and Play
-Power
-Remote Procedure Call (RPC)
-RPC Endpoint Mapper
-Security Accounts Manager
-System Event Notification Service
-Task Scheduler
-User Profile Service
-Windows Audio
-Windows Audio Endpoint Builder
-Windows Installer (set to manual)
-WLAN Autoconfig

This set up disables all the sweet Areo effects.
To enable those leave the following services running:-
- Desktop Window Manager Session Manager
- Themes

Also, to leave the "Ready Boost" feature running, do NOT disable the service Superfetch.

Tip: Go to run -> msconfig. Go to the start up and uncheck everything that you don't need (I don't have any running).

Good luck.