Optimizing: How many processes do you have running?

I read around that an optimized notebook should have around 30-40 processes running, while a notebook fresh out of the box might have more than 60.

Unfortunately, I suppose I'm in the middle ground with 54 on my SZ ...

Could owners post the number of processes they have running too, so that I can have an idea of where I am?

In addition, if someone savvy with msconfig would post the names of the services they have disabled, I would really appreciate it.

 

Thank you very much NuntiusLuminis for bringing out this topic. I was just about to do the same. Anyways, I had about 86 programs that loaded up when I first opened my laptop. Now, after tweaking and uninstalling (I'm gonna start all over once I get my recovery disk's), I have 33 programs.

My desktop computer has about 32, so it's about the same. I get rid of every thing that I don't really need like Quick Launch and the volume icon. I hope this helps.

 

How do I find out what each process is for? I can't expand the locations in the config utility so I have no idea how I can find more info about them. I tried a quick search on them too but sometimes they yield nothing =/

 

It depends if I have my SZ on stamina or speed mode. Stamina I have 36 processes/threads while in speed I have 33 processes.

Apparently when using the Intel GMA950 it has 3 more processes to load then versus using Nvidia 7400 solution.

I could have it lower if I opted to not run Sony Vaio utilities or Intel Wireless Software. Laptop in general have more processes to run, my desktop has 17 threads.

One way to find information about the different processes is to look at the actual process running in Task Manager. Once you have the name, go to a search engine and type the name in exactly with the extension and usually you'll get a few matches from different sites detailing what the file is, who is it by and what it does.

I didn't disable things from msconfig, just did a partial C: system restore and then uninstalled a few programs. But if you wish to remove things from msconfig, you could instead do it from the registry if you feel comfortable with it, this way your msconfig will still be set on Normal Startup.

 

man... my scomputer has about 47-50 running at all times. It's kind of weird that when I switch to speed mode, the intel gpu controller keeps running. Is there a way I can fix this?

Also, sorry to be asking to be spoonfed, but exactly what apps are essential anyway? and which are not, with respect to the original software that came with the computer/ microsoft apps

 

AVG has four processes running, Kerio Personal Firewall three, and svchost seven

Do those count?

In addition, I see many processes are part of Intel and VAIO entertainment

 

I usually have like 32-33 running.. use a program such as tweakXP or simply type "msconfig" in your start -> run dialog field and disable all unnecessary startup programs..
also - if you just got your notebook, make a clean format and reinstallation of XP, BUT do read the notebookreview guide here first on what the do's and dont's are!

 

Vaio Entertainment you don't need, I forgot what it was but there was one thread for Vaio Entertainment that I removed.

SVCHost.exe files are associated with DLL files that have been run. I have 7 SVCHost file threads.

@NuntiusLuminis:
Yours might be a little high but it seems about right with the 4 + 3 from AVG & Kerio.

I don't run any antivirus or Personal Firewall program actively 24/7, just do a scan of the HD once a week manually.

 

Can some make a list saying which programs I should keep running and which ones I shouldn't? (for the SZ) Because I have kept it the way it was from the begining.

 

When using Stamina mode (Intel GMA950), the processes set to start in MSConfig are:

Alps Pointer
3 lines for Intel GMA950 Graphics
2 Sony Files: SPMgr & ISBMgr
3 Nvidia Files: NvCpl, Nwiz & NvMcTray (One is control panel, the other Nview, and last one system tray I think)
3 Intel Pro Wireless files: ZCfgSvc, ifrmewrk & EOUWiz
5 Windows IME files: IMJPMIG, IMEKRMIG, ImScInst, 2x TintSetp
1 Bluetooth: rundll32 (I use Windows Bluetooth manager)

For Speed (Nvidia) mode, don't know but my guess is take out the 3 lines for GMA950 and thats about it.

 

out of curiousity, I opened up the msconfig manager and saw the following objects, I was wondering if I need them, what they were and if I can safely get rid of them



sony related:
mscsptisrv
pacsptisr
sony spti service

They seem to be in the sony avlib folder

and office source engine

what the heck is that? also, I was wondering if I should ger rid of the vaio event service as I periodically check into their website for updates anyway. thanks you guys

 

Services should not be disabled in msconfig, but rather services.msc, amirite?

 

How times have changed.

My "optimal" configurations in the past were below 20 processes...But I found that I simply couldn't do that with new computers. Especially notebooks.

They have ridiculous Bluetooth drivers which took up 4 processes and 30 megs of RAM.

I'd take a look at an SZ23 later on to see if I can optimise it a bit.

Hope you get the best out of your optimisations.

 

Thats the reason why I got rid of the Toshiba BT stack on my SZ2, instead I use the MS stack. That saves some 30MB of Ram and those 4 processes and is very light on the system. You'll lose some profiles though but OBEX, Serial and Syncing with PDA is still possible and thats all I need.

 

how did you safely get rid of the toshiba app? I uninstalled it and it killed the driver on the bt module. I can't reinstall just the driver for some reason, it's kind of weird

 

I have about 40-45 processes running. The addition of five to ten more, even very low memory ones (300-500k), I find, really bogs down the computer. The sweet spot is really in the late 30's early 40's

 

how do you get the MS to work after the Toshiba is removed?

 

Uninstalling the Toshiba BT stack kills BT for the moment, thats true. But you can use the MS stack. The problem is that Windows doesn't know the BT device so you've to use a little trick. Once uninstalled the Toshiba stack there's a device called UGX and windows won't find a suitable driver. Thats the BT module. Click on it and have a look at the details tab at the hardware id. It's something like this "USB\Vid_044e&Pid_300c". Now open the bth.inf (you can find it in the inf folder in the windows dir) and scroll down to the Sony section. You'll see some Sony BT devices with a very similar hardware id. Instead "USB\Vid_044e&Pid_300c" they differ in the last letter. Something like "USB\Vid_044e&Pid_300x" where the x is something else than the c. Dublicate that line and change the last letter to c. Now save the file and close the editor. Fire up the device manager and let windows search for a driver for that UGX. Now windows will find a driver, install it and you're good to go with the ms stack. Works perfectly but keep in mind that the ms stack is light on the system but lacks some bt profiles some people may need. Hardware switches, wireless control or smartwi is not affected by that. You're just trading some (maybe uneeded) bt profiles for resources. I've not suffered any problems with my BT GPS, PDA or Obex file transfer. Also note, that it still uses EDR if both ends have it. The problem is that the device is just to new for windows database.

I use BT from time to time but not that extensively so I'm not feeling like letting that Toshiba juggernaut of a bt stack take over 30MB of RAM when the small ms stack does all I need.

 

sorry Im a little confused. I found the sony part ok and there were 4 of those lines. which one do I change? and did you mean just changing the line there or exporting that changed line elsewhere?


the actual path of the toshiba id is usb\vid_044e&pid_300c\5&e890450&0&2

 

No, not changing the lines. Merely doublicatiing one (making it 5) and changeing that one.

 

im sorry that was a little confusing. from what I gather, you're saying to dublicate the original line from the bluetooth module, and pasting it onto the other 4 sony lines?

Do I also include the numbers after 300c\ if this is the case?

 

Is it that hard to understand??? To make it more clear...

The Sony section of the bth.inf looks like this:

[Sony.NT.5.1]
USB Bluetooth Device= BthUsb, USB\Vid_044E&Pid_3002
USB Bluetooth Device= BthUsb, USB\Vid_044E&Pid_3003
Sony Bluetooth USB Adapter= BthUsb, USB\Vid_044E&Pid_3004
USB Bluetooth Device= BthUsb, USB\Vid_044E&Pid_3007

Change it to look like this:

[Sony.NT.5.1]
Sony Bluetooth USB Adapter= BthUsb, USB\Vid_044E&Pid_300c
USB Bluetooth Device= BthUsb, USB\Vid_044E&Pid_3002
USB Bluetooth Device= BthUsb, USB\Vid_044E&Pid_3003
Sony Bluetooth USB Adapter= BthUsb, USB\Vid_044E&Pid_3004
USB Bluetooth Device= BthUsb, USB\Vid_044E&Pid_3007

Now save and exit and let Windows seach again. The BT module will be found as "Sony Bluetooth USB Adapter" and the MS BT stack will be used, flawlessly.

 

Okay, this topic will now segue back to my own problems
Should the Bluetooth blue light ALWAYS be on?
It only started recently staying on after startup--
I distinctly remember not seeing it for the longest time.
I would have took note of such a cool, outstanding blue light.

Would someone tell me how to turn off bluetooth?

 

If your wireless switch is on then the bluetooth light will be on, they are linked.

However the hardware portion can be on but you can disable the XP side. So Wireless Switch is on but Bluetooth off and Wi-fi on, in XP. Or vice versa.

I just have Bluetooth disabled all the time in XP. Sometimes I use the wi-fi but most of the times the switch is left off. But in those times I do switch the wireless switch on, Bluetooth stays off in XP (light is on though).

Confusing?

 

im usally below 180 MB with a couple of tabs open in firefox and aim on. i think thats pretty good. when i get my 512 stick to bring it up to 1 gig ram , then the real multitasking begins.

 

Wow, my SZ2 eats 310MB when fully booted up. But when you have 2GB installed that's not a big concern. There are quite some tools I'd like to keep for comfort and safety reasons like Intel ProSet, NHC or Kaspersky IS.

 

under LAN there is a setting for bluetooth to be turned on and off, there are otherways but thats the first i found after franticly searching my computer to figure out why my new BT mouse wouldent work.

 

raiderlax27, do you mean that green tray icon with "LAN" on it?
For some reason, I don't have that anymore (used to, might explain why I never saw bluetooth always on before).
Could anyone tell me where to find it?

 

Vaio Central >> Sys Info Tab >> Network Connections >> Wireless Switch Settings

 

speaking of bluetooth switches, do you guys know how much ram the original switch takes? I checked smartwi which im currently running and it takes 3 processes and about 30 megs =/

 

The original wireless switch util uses about 8-9MB of RAM as far as I can remember. But you can set smartwi to not use any RAM at all. Contrary to the wireless switch util smartwi does not need to run constantly to do its job. Just go into the settings of smartwi and disable the first three checkboxes (autostart, start when hardware switch used etc). The processes wil be gone and the RAM stays unused. Smartwi will work no matter what. You can't do it via the tray icon anymore but an installed version of smartwi brings a new hotkey combination. From now on FN-F1 wil toggle the wireless settings (BT+WIFI, BT, WIFI) and that hotkey wil work even when smartwi is not active in the tray.

 

None of those boxes are checked actually. I'm currently using the function buttons to toggle my wifi connection but the services are still running in the background, straight from the time my computer boots up. I think the version I have is 1.2.0.20706. The services running are:

smartwitogglet
wculauncher
smartwiservice


On another note though, how would I set the camera utility to only boot when I actually use the camera and not boot on start-up, and how do I get rid of the isbmgr program? My boot up is pretty slow and it drives me insane, as I've spent so much time cleaning stuff up and new issues keep popping up. Perfection never seems to last more than a second with this computer.

and lastly, do any of you guys know if the premium sz's come with 1gig stick or 2x512? I'm looking to add another gig but I'm not too sure and don't really want to open my computer. I was also wondering if I should use the same brand of memory, and at the same speed? Upon asking my more tech savvy friends, and the local computer store help, they all seem to say yes

 

Mine came with a single 1GB stick and I bumped the RAM up to 2GB right after purchase. My boot time is pretty long too but I don't boot very often. I use hybernation most of the time. Doesn't take nearly as long.

Can it be the smartwi uses up more RAM on your machine? I replaces the wireless connection util with smartwi and actually freed a couple of MBs. When I started to optimize my SZ2 used 330MB right after boot. Now I'm down to a little over 300MB.

 

Hey, guys, I have a question about EOUwiz, ifrmewrk, and ZCfgSvc.
I just disabled them without any dreadful reprecussions.
They are apart of Intel Wireless.
I also disabled all Intel Wireless cooresponding services in services.msc...

Now... what is the purpose of all these things I turned off?

Disabling these Intel associated items brought me down to 29 processes!

 

@ privatecowboy: at just wiping unnecessary stuff from the start up, my computer boots with a little over 35 processes and 230meg of ram. I still havent found a way of disabling a few of the processes, short of regedit which I do not want to mess with, and cut down my boot time to about 15 secs. I think I can do better than this though as my old fujitsu N, which is still in operation boots in about 10-12 secs, with less than 200 megs used during start up.

@nuntius: were you able to get rid of isbmgr ( sony battery verification) and vcuserve (camera utility)? Those two weren't even listed under services.msc but you definitely see them if you go through msconfig.


Theres actually a few other processes as well that I turned off with msconfig and it really sped up my computer.

 

boots up in 15 secs! thats very fast. i think somethings wrong with mine. mine boots up in about 1 minute. i have around 37 processes after a fresh boot. how did that happen?

 

im not too sure, I just did the semi restore then uninstalled some useless programs and switched a few things to manual instead of auto and everything went great. less than 15secs from start to welcome screen, about 10secs after the finger swipe till complete boot to windows. so i guess 15 is an exaggeration =D, maybe 20-25 secs

 

Hi Nuntius,

I believe you can't avoid those heavyweight Intel stuff unless you choose to have windows manage your wireless for you instead.

I used to let windows manage my wireless. It's less flashy looking but it took up way less RAM. That was until a few weeks ago when Intel admitted a bug in their Centrinos which would allow malicious attackers to take over your computer.

I downloaded and installed Intel's latest drivers and have been stuck with the overbloated crap since...

If you find more information regarding how to remove those processes, I'd appreciate it too.

 

Hi Auto,

Your computer is booting up quite quickly! If you're using the finger reader, that means you've installed the heavyweight drivers for your fingerprint reader as well...
And you still managed to boot your computer so quickly.

Are you using a faster hard drive?

 

Im actually not using a faster harddrive. Perhaps it's the way Im timing it. Im using a watch to do this so theres always that error of +/- 2-3 secs.

But I just booted my computer and from the time i press the power button to the time i hit the welcome screen was a little less than 20secs. As I type in my password (my reader is really inaccturate outside of windows) my computer loads in about 15-17secs, with connecting to a wireless source and all. If I turn off the wireless switch, it always helps the system by a few secs. So I think 25-30 sec is more like it. Im going to turn off the fingerprint reader and wireless switch now and retry it and ill post results in a sec

edit: ok I just uninstalled the fingerprint reader, turned off adobe gamma and switched the wireless off. it's about the same either way. power button to welcome screen was 17, and all processes boot was still about 13.

so I think my boottime is about the same as everyone elses, under a min. approx 25s to fully load all the useless mcafee junk and all. But I think im going to try a more accurate test later this week and post results then. I think I'll still stay at 30 or less. So much for 15secs though, what a lie on my part. Im sorry about that

 

whwtan, it appears that Windows is managing my network connections now.
I'm online with my notebook, yet I disabled all the Intel junk.

So, there isn't anything wrong with letting Windows take care of things?
Security risks, I understand, but otherwise?

BTW, autophobic, I requested this in another thread, but could you post your startup items?

I have only the following:
Apoint
igfxtray
igfxpers
SPMgr
ISBMgr

 

yeah I answered the other thread, you have way less than me though but apparently my boot time is pretty good.

whwtan, as for the intel drivers, they offered just the driver alone a little while back. I was able to find just the driver with the security updates so I didn't have to use intel's 30meg+ proset. However, I went back the other day to look and I couldnt find just the driver anymore.

er actually I lied, I think I found it. The driver version you want is 10.5.1.57 I believe. Check to see if that's the one that the update installed on your computer, if so, then here's the page with just the driver.

http://downloadfinder.intel.com/scripts-df-external/Detail_Desc.aspx?&DwnldID=11342

 

I just noticed that I have a truckload of processes running. In total 68! right after boot. I tink I need some optimization but most of those services are either related to safety tools (Kasperky IS, SafeGuard Easy) or communication tools (ProSet Wireless, SmartWi). There's hardly any room to bring the number down. How are you getting below 40???

 

sony has a few services that are in the avlib file I took care of, these files:
mscsptisvr
pacsptisvr
sony spti service


the fingerprint scanner has 1 large service being menusw

did you also turn off vaioupdag, justched, qttask, and any automatic updates on your other programs? You could also take out vcuserve and isbmgr, but I guess a picture is worth a thousand words so here's a screen shot of what my list looks like fully optimized. After I finished the picture (which was at start up + print screen), it actually dropped to 218 megs! I circled the stats at the bottom.

But also, please keep in mind that this is just removing some of the bloatware. I haven't turned off partseal, or fast indexing or anything. I dunno how that would affect the computer but it's pretty darn speedy right now. Also, please keep in mind that a lot of these processes were taken off using msconfig. so Im not booting in normal yet. I still havent found a permanent way to manually control some of the processes

when in normal boot mode, Im still plagued with 47 processes and about 260-280 megs at start up though. ugh beats when I first got the computer, 330+ megs!

 

Well I dont see the sense of it right now. I updated my SZ2 to the full 2GB of RAM and ven with the full load of 68 processes I still have 75% of the RAM unused.

I see that the boot time is a little slow but I rarely reboot anyway (maybe once or twice a week) so that is hardly a factor. I normally use hibernation or standby. So I don't know if it worth the loss of comfort and security to get that little faster boot once in a while.

When the system is booted it's fast as hell even when forced to 1GHz (no dynamic switching to the max). There's no lag whatsoever. Most processes are usefull to, I got rid of the stupid ones. I never installed the Sony updater or other stuff like that.

The system tools like Kasperky, SafeGuard, ProSet Wireless, O&O Defrag, Alps Touchpad and SmartWi all offer usefull functionality. There is no RAM or process wasted so I can't see where to "save" another 100MB and over 20 process other than making the system insecure and uncomfortable.

What I may (and prolly will) do is using the WZC wifi and remove the ProSet Wireless and just use the driver. There's a driver only zip. BUT how do you switch between A,B and G then? Does the WZC do so? Troubleshooting the wifi connection can be done with tools like Everest so the ProSet Wireless is not that useful.

SmartWi and ProSet removal will free some 50MB and 6 processes if I counted correctly. But how do you control BT/WIFI then? If you just wanna BT something you'd enable WIFI too and it would eat up battery. It both or nothing then. The wireless switching util is no better from a RAM consumption standpoint.

Besides there are a lot of processes related to the Intel graphics, what have you done to them?

Even the Samsung notebook of my wife has 44 process after boot and that does not run stuff like the ProSet Wireless, Sony utils or SafeGuard.

Edit:

Hell, I just noticed that too a few mins ago. 30MB Ram usage for SmartWi. That really is way to much, I think I'm going to revert to the wireless switcher that came with the SZ2. That one only used 10MB.

 

Actually, the only processes Im trying to get rid of are the isbmanager and switching the camera utility to manual. The adobe stuff bugs but I'll deal with it later. I still have about 75% of my ram as well, it's more of a ocd thing for me.

As for the wireless switch, I turned it off for now since I'm mostly on ac. I don't have much of a problem with it as I really have no choice. The wireless switcher stopped working abruptly one day and I never got it to work again. Everytime I try to turn it on, it automatically shuts itself off as I monitor it using taskmanager.

I can't figure it out, so maybe if you find out a solution lmk. I like smartwi and all but the other one did the job just fine and I hardly use bt. I'd like to use it again so I can save my ram for F.E.A.R. =D

 

Same here, but I'd like to be able to swtich off bt when not in use or wifi when I just use bt. You don't have to do it but its quite a loss of comfort And a major battery drain when you're on the road using AutoRoute or somehting with GPS connected using bt and wifi on but not doing anything. So some sort of switch is needed. SmartWi is very comfortable but 30MB of RAM??? That's just wrong.

One thing you can do is deactivating the respective device in the control manager, that shuts it off too. But that is most uncomfortable.

 

Holy crap, I just optimized mine a little. I uninstalled the ProSet and the SmartWi. I now use the new old wireless swtich setting (tray icon) and installed just the driver for the intel wifi and let wzc manage it. Besides I removed some more processes (acrotray, PowerDVD remote server). My boot time is now some 15secs faster and instead of 68 processes consumig some 380MB of RAM I now have 58 processes consuming 300MB of RAM.

The best thing is that all the tweak options for the wifi are still there in the driver properties. Just the mamoth ProSet tool is gone with its background processes. And replacing SmartWi replaced three processes with some 30MB RAM consumption by a single one that only eats up 6-8MB.

Sadly though there's not much more to optimize since the other processes are either related to windows media center functions, security tools or system utils like NHC or SafeGuard. The only thing I found is that there are two processes related the the intel graphics including one that displays the tray icon. That process runs even if the icon is disabled. But it only consumes 3MB of RAM so I guess I leave it one for now.

If you keep the ProSet for diagnostic reasons (that what I had in mind) you can also use better tools like NetStumbler. So the ProSet is pretty much useless.

Anyone uses PowerDVD? There's a process called "language.exe", any idea what it does and if its safe to remove?

 

I disabled all of my processes except Apoint and Nvidia.
27 processes at 195 MB idle. 24 if I disabled my firewall.



By the way, how is boot time measured? From when I press the on switch to when I reach the welcome screen?

 

I measured mine from power button to windows desktop. I don't have any welcome screen as I use autologon. I use SafeGuard instead for securing my SZ2.