7422 ctrl+alt+del: What background apps needed?

This is my first new computer since my desktop P3 800 running 98se and my first laptop ever. I've always tried to run as lean as possible to avoid problems when recording live bands which I do professionally and can't afford to run into problems. So far it seems pretty stable as is, but just to be safe, I'd like to turn off any unnecessary applications running in the background and eliminate as much as possible from bootup. In 98, I do this by start>run>msconfig>startup and unchecking everything except systray and scanregistry. Also, if I've been running other apps after bootup but before recording, I stop everything except systray and explorer from ctrl+alt+del.

On my 7422gx, ctrl+alt+del reveals tons of stuff going on. I assume laptops need more, but can anyone tell me what's necessary and how to elimate the junk? For instance, what's "soundman.exe"? Thanks.

 

I never bother to close Soundman.exe (soundmanager). Whenever I am running very demanding programs on battery, I close everything exept soundman.exe, ati2evxx.exe, explorer, and of course all of the system, Local and Network service apps. I dont know what all you have, but those 3 are the ones that I dont even bother to see what happens if I close them.. Hope this helps..

Gateway 7426