Of course you need your AV program and firewall, and some also have there something like SpyBot's "TeaTimer" which I use. But you have some redundant items in yours. With your AV software, you don't need any Trojan protection. Also with the "pest control", and "browser protection", that should also not be necessary with decent AV software, unless it's for things like bad cookies for example. If it is, then SpyWare Blaster takes care of that, and it doesn't even have to be running.
You also should not need the "AV recovery database", that should not have to be running unless it's for some "lacking" AV software. I'm not sure what "Tracking computer" is, but from the sound of it it's also some kind of anti-malware software which is also probably redundant with SpyWare Blaster. "Picasa tracking images" I'm not familiar with it. "Roboform" sounds like something that does what IE's "Auto fill" does. Either way, it shouldn't need to be running until you need to fill out a form or need to login somewhere, right? It's also not needed with FireFox. You should not need any kind of spam filter running until you open your email program, and even then, you should be able to create filters from within the email program without having to have a separate program running. What I did, is I have about 40 shortcuts on my Quick Launch toolbar and many are for programs. Some examples: Ghost loads several things @boot of which none are needed. I disabled them, and also set it to "Manual" under XP Services. When I need to run it, I just simply click the icon I have for it on the toolbar, and that's it. "Spooler" is something that does not need to be running until you NEED to print something. I also have it set to "Manual" under Services, and I have a shortcut to 2 batch files for it. When I need to print something, I simply click the printer icon I made to start the Spooler service. After I've printed, I click the other icon I made (with a red X through it) to shut down the service. I do the same thing with "Windows image acquisition" when I need to scan something. Although you didn't mention it, most leave Roxio/Adaptec software running always, which is unnecessary. You of course don't need it until you need to record to a CD! So, I have shortcut to DCD, and I just click that when I need to format a CD then put some data on it. On XP (Pro) though, you don't even need burning software for a simple task like that. Should you worry? If your PC isn't sluggish and you don't have any problems related to all these programs running, then of course not. But it could speed things up if you only execute many of them when you need them. -Clint God Bless Clint Hamilton, Owner http://OrpheusComputing.com ) http://ComputersCustomBuilt.com ----- Original Message ----- From: "ETM" <> 21 plus clock. Are we counting? Do I win? Seriously, should I worry? I consider most of them pretty important, firewall, pest control, AV program, AV recovery database tracking computer, Gmail notifier, picasa tracking images, browser protection, trojan preventive, roboform, volume control, spam filter, you get the idea. Elaine >> TWELVE icons in the System Tray?? Wow Vern. I hope you >> have a fast CPU and a lot of RAM. :-) There has to be >> more than 5 things running if you have 12 icons in the >> tray. I would guess there's about 35 running. > Right now I only have 10 icons in the system tray. I have 37 > in the > "processes" and I have 45504 of physical memory available. > I only have a 1.4 gig and 256 meg of ram. I've had this > computer over 3 > years and never had this problem before and usually run with > up to 15 icons > in system tray. >> Then look at "Commit charge" and see what that says. > Commit charge is around 272,388. What is commit charge > anyway? > When I started OE tonight it gave me the same out of message > error but then > it went away and all is working normal now. Normal relatively > speaking. It > takes 5 minutes from the time I turn the computer on before I > see the icons > on the desk top. All programs load slowly. When I turned the > computer on I > had 45452 physical memory free. After I started the ISP > program to get on > the internet it went up to 61532. It went up after I started > another > program. Duh? ============= PCWorks Mailing List ================= Don't see your post? Check our posting guidelines & make sure you've followed proper posting procedures, http://pcworkers.com/rules.htm Contact list owner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Unsubscribing and other changes: http://pcworkers.com =====================================================
