i open task manager and click on provesses tab and see a whole bunch of things running, some i havent heard of, is it safe to delete and will it FINALLY make my computer faster?
No. If you kill the wrong thing, you'll lock up your computer or worse. The best path is to run an anti-spyware program like Spybot or Ad-Aware. http://www.safer-networking.org/en/mirrors/index.html http://www.lavasoft.com/products/ad_aware_free.php x
lol, the good news is that you can only end up frustrating yourself (ie turning off all those wonderful things like printing) but you can't cause anything that a reboot won't fix. Windows XP and later won't let you close vital processes. My advice: If your computer is running slow, but it's new enough not to suck, get a good anti-virus ( AVG AntiVirus ) and anti-spyware/trojan ( AVG AntiSpyware {which has merged with an industry standard trojan remover})
many of them can be turned off, few are really essential. turn off any that you recognize as unneeded and do a google search for any others to find out what they are and if you need them.
http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm Nobody does it better than blackviper. Scroll down the page till you see the chart. x
Three things to make a windows computer run faster: * Defrag - simple enough yet alot of people I help with their computers only defrag maybe once a month if that, depending on how much you download and delete things some users may need to defrag as often as once a week. Also their are programs around such as Diskeeper which not only do a better job at defrag than the program that comes with Windows, but can also automaticly keep your hard drives defragged. * Clean the Registry - Everytime you load a program be it at startup or to surf the internet that program calls on little files in the registry. Over time those files get jumbled around as new files are added not to mention alot of dead registry files get left behind whenever we uninstall something. This means a program has to take extra time to sort through all the junk, find the file it needs, then rewrite it's config file so it remembers where the registry entry is next time. By cleaning the registry often we make the registry smaller and help the programs run faster. * Startup Programs - This one is more advanced use it at your own risk. go to Start>Run and type msconfig. A window will come up with all sorts of options, choose startup tab and you will see a list of programs windows runs when it boots, some of these aren't always needed, some of them are, if you feel this step is ok review each entry carefully, google the names to find out what they are, and if you feel it's not something you need to run when windows starts uncheck the box next to it. After you apply and hit ok the computer will ask you to reboot, do so. When Windows comes back you will see a box that says you are now using selective startup mode, click the little box that says you understand and click ok.
