XP processes, whats normal?

[Korporativ]

I have 31 windows processes running at any given time under XP... this seems a bit ecessive to me. How many do the rest of you run? Is there a site anyone can reccomend with a description of processes and if its safe to shut em down or not? Thank you.

 

[NogginBoink]

31 processes is more than just Windows processes.

Processes that are currently running on my machine that are part of the OS:

csrss.exe
explorer.exe
lsass.exe
msdtc.exe
services.exe
smss.exe
spoolsv.exe
4 instances of svchost.exe
System
System Idle Process
winlogon.exe

The best way to know what a particular process is is to Google 'em.

 

[boomerang]

Originally posted by: Korporativ
I have 31 windows processes running at any given time under XP... this seems a bit ecessive to me. How many do the rest of you run? Is there a site anyone can reccomend with a description of processes and if its safe to shut em down or not? Thank you.

This guy has all the information you'd ever need at his site.

 

[Korporativ]

alright well i got most of em down to needs, but theres a few that I have no clue wtf they are and the google searches are pretty nondescript.


MMC.exe is always running and its like 15 megs?
nvsvc32.exe
OSA.exe
CTSVCCDA.exe
any ideas? heh

 

[jmatt]

1st step , run a virus check from 1 of these .
Online Virus check ( free )
http://housecall.antivirus.com/
http://www.coledata.com/virusalert.htm
http://www.cybertechhelp.com/html/misc/av.php
http://www.pandasoftware.es/activescan/activescan-com.asp

 

[brianp34]

run msconfig, see if some of the services are linked to software that's auto starting with windows. then run adaware and see if that turns up anything.

 

[rmrf]

Originally posted by: Korporativ
alright well i got most of em down to needs, but theres a few that I have no clue wtf they are and the google searches are pretty nondescript.


MMC.exe is always running and its like 15 megs?
nvsvc32.exe
OSA.exe
CTSVCCDA.exe
any ideas? heh

mmc.exe - microsoft management console (you need this)
nvsvc32.exe - nvidia driver process (probably need this)
osa.exe - office startup assistant (probably not needed)
ctsvccda.exe - cdrom services (probably needed)

hope this helps.