How Many Processes Do You Have Running?

62 before re-format of Vista Premium, 42 after re-format.

 

I run around 50 on a normal occasion now. I was running in the low to mid 30s range usually, but now I have other processes running for my business network and security software.

I was even in the high 40s before I looked up the free software thread at the top of this forum. Now I keep a CPU throttle monitor running too (RMClock), along with other stuff. Normal programs/processes running all the time are: Gaim, AVG, Comodo Firewall, MSSQL Server, Security software, etc.

I have a full gig of RAM, though, so I'm not so anal about trimming down my processes anymore. As long as the RAM can handle having the processes running, it's quicker for program usage to just let them run. It's always a double-edged sword to balance RAM usage and RAM capacity. Why get more RAM if you're not going to let your computer use it? To that end, since I have the RAM I'll let the processes run without seeing any decrease in performance (actually better performance with them running for quicker launches).

 

Well, i started with disabling that useless Windows Defender for one, plus a few other Vista thingies like disk indexing(with indexing on, your hard drive is constantly working), disabled scheduled defragmenting with Vista Defragger(i am simply not that lazy to do it manually every two weeks or so).

But what you gotta watch out for are the startup processes of the software you have installed, as so many of them add their own monitoring services there that you don't need. Whenever i install something, i always check my startup(msconfig) to see if it added something. And if i don't know what a certain .exe does, i just type it into Google and read about it. And if it is not essential(most of the time they are not), i remove it.

 

cahoole, check this out:
Note that it also has a second page where all the Vista services are explained.
http://www.mydigitallife.info/2007/...sed-unneeded-or-unnecessary-windows-services/

Also, go here and download the .pdf Vista Tweak Guide:
http://www.tweakguides.com/TGTC.html

 

right now i have 68

 

thanks estlander, your advice is much appreciated, i'm beginning to become a bit of a performance geek and i want to squeeze every last ounce of power out of my computer. Only thing is tho, i keep disabling services and losing wirless connection, one day ill figure it out (i have got startup to 26secs tho from bout 40, this makes me happy lol). I have about 11 start up programs at the mo, no spyware etc. i like to think its quite clean. id like to know how people with less than 2gig handle vista, i've currently got word, itunes, ff2 running and using 867mb!!!! what is using all my ram, i know ive got loads of space but in future ill be adding more software etc and i dont want it cloggin up!

 

I have 25 with no applications! I like to run a streamlined version of windows. Maximum performance with minimal overheads.

 

I got only five.....lol. Three of them are Nvidia graphics card related, one is touchpad related, and the fifth one is sidebar.exe.

 

Well, I don't think I've done anything special exactly, just the "normal" things: disabled unnecessary services and startup items and such.

At the moment I'm with not a single startup program (not even antivirus software) so maybe that explains it. After a clean boot I've got 10 processes.

 

As long as your computer is running good (and fast) and you cut down on the startup programs, etc around 55-60 processes running on a Vista Premium laptop with bluetooth isn't a whole lot, right? Cutting processes down to nothing means a lot of functionality will be reduced too for certain things..

 

On a clean boot up I have about 57 running. With all my apps. and progs. it goes to about 62.

Windows XP SP2 Media Center 2005

But, my laptop is such a beast, it doesn't bother me at all to have these things running. It's lightning fast, no hiccups.

Apps: NIS 2007 in the background, Pinnacle Studio 10 (I capture and edit video), AIM 6.0, Windows Media Player 10, and IE 7. I also have a few Dell apps that run, such as Quickset.

 

I have about 75 running on a newly rebooted vaio laptop (vista home premium). it goes to about 90 when i start to run apps like itunes, MSN Live Messenger, etc. I also have NAV 2007 on the background.

 

Thats not really true. A lot of windows osses come with all kinds of network services enabled. First this is annoying from a security standpoint because this means there are more possible exploits open to attackers. For instance there is no reason SNMP should be enabled on anything but an admins computer. And then only if you use SNMP to audit your network. Likewise for other networking and admin protocols or services. RIP? SSDP?
AS far as whether they make a difference performance wise. Well Cisco advises disabling services on routers to conserve resources and increase performance. But honestly most computers we use these days are plenty fast. They spend more time waiting than anything.

 

When I had WinXP Professional I had about 55 processes, about 400MB worth. It's because of all the bloatware that came along with my Thinkpad.

Now that I have Vista Business, I have about 32 processes running.
When I open some programs, it jumps to about 60-80.

 

My home desktop with win XP pro had 38 process running

 

Currently, with IE7 and Task Manager open in XP, I have 35 running.

 

Ack, 57 right now? Damn.

Winamp, Firefox, AIM, Sidebar, Bluetooth, Daemon Tools, Sound Blaster Volume Control...

hmmz...

 

Actually, that does not sound so bad with Vista considering all the apps you have running in the background. I think on a clean install of Ultimate RC2 I had 52 running right from the get go.

 

67 after Vista upgrade, ~45 after tweaking.

 

i have 83 at the moment.

 

You folks with 40 and more processes running could probably speed your machines up quite a bit by stopping some of the unneeded background junk. It really isn't hard to do at all, and is definitely worth your effort. In case it hasn't already been mentioned, go to msconfig to stop worthless start-up apps; services.msc to stop unneeded processes.

 

I'd recommend using the SysInternals Autoruns to disable random services... (Although recently bought out by Microsoft the programs are still good)

Also to look at ProceXP for those pesky folders which aren't be used by anything which can't be deleted... (Search the folder name in handle and close it )

 

Sometimes you have a lto of app you need at startup.

 

58 right now. At least 7 of those are programs (Firefox, Opera (not at all uncommon for me to have 2 different browsers up), 2 notepads, Excel, taskman, and wmplayer. HP Clockbar also is up there; kind of bloatware but useful enough I leave it up. Antivirus and Firewall eat up several, but I'm sure I could reduce it if I really wanted to.

Zap! There goes one! And another! No more explorer.exe...back to Win 3.1 style when I minimize stuff.

 

Don't you feel much better now?

 

you really dont need to go all technical and use 3rd party programs or arcane command line invocations.
Just go to
settings>
control panels>
administrative tools>
services

I use the black viper site to determine which to kill or keep.

 

First one was nice. So was the second, until I realized my Media Player was minimized to the Taskbar and I couldn't get to it without the Explorer! :laugh:

 

48 at startup.

46 after trimming.

Then, anywhere from 47-51+ when using AIM, MSN, Firefox, etc.

Vista btw.

Can't believe I used to have 70 processes running...

 

22 processes in vista ultimate

like 36 on XP (but I have alot of stuff on xp)

trimming processes wont speed up your system nesissarly so thats a premature conclusion, whats important is how much of the system resources they use. many of them use up next to nothing. and it just so happens that most of the time the ones that are using up a good chunk of resources are the important ones :/

 

55 for me.


Unicron

 

60 for me :/ and that is after I have done some tweaking....I was at 78 before

XP Home

btw how are you all getting your processes so low, it seems as if I have disabled everything that I do not need....

 

Pre-vista I had 58-ish. Now, post-vista I have 38 processes running, with two apps (firefox, calculator).

 

well yes and no.
There are a lot of processes that are ON by default to support the entire plethora of possible networking scenarios. Pretty much everythign is TCP/IP now so most of these are redundant. A few other networking protocols are interesting and useful only to IP geeks like me (SNMP for one).
There are also a number of stupid redundant things that Lenovo, Dell, HP, etc cram in there for no good reason. I have 3 different ways to burn a data disc on my computer why? And many of these "extras" have little taskbar applets and keepalives running that do indeed use resources. Sure killing any one process off wont make a noticeable differance. But taking my laptop from 60 to 21 processes turned it from a sloth into, well not a cheetah, more like a really fast collie.
PS DO look up the various processes and the repercussions of disabling them. Hacking and slashing your way through windows is a well known route to instability.

 

But disabling the RPC service is fun I don't need REMOTE procedure calls, do I?

 

I've had 72 on my Clevo M570U for the last few months and it's still going strong! I do have to stop a few to start some programs though like I have to stop the Skype processor for my VB.NET compiler to work.

 

I just formatted and I have 18. It would probably be 16-17 if I weren't regenerating a software RAID 1. This is a low fat windows xp pro install which weighs in at 278MB. Could use a little trimming but I didn't want to take out too much for fear I might want it in the future (like fax support for instance or some old printer that I might want to connect where I'm too lazy to go dig around for the driver online).

 

43, hate this computer.

 

You can MSCONFIG and disable a lot of unnecessary services on XP. Makes things run much smoother. Just do a little research to figure out what is what, or use common sense and trail & error(like I do).

Vista is a bit more complex when it comes to deciding what services to disable.

I'm pretty sure there are guides of what to disable.

 

BlackViper for one.

 

I forgot all about that site. Thanks.

 

Compelled to post again

49, inc task manager of course and also firefox But since buying the VX Revolution, I've had these 2 extra processes. Stupid thing. No it doesn't suck up any more than a trifling amount of ram, I would still like lean and mean far as possible though

Minus 4x yahoo widget processes, my system would be on a lean enough 42. Oh well

 

In my new machine I have 49 processes running right now with Vista Home Premium (x86). My XP Home unit has 35 running.

 

38 with 3 IM clients, Virus guard + Firewall and MS Mouse driver.

 

I always remove autorun processes using msconfig

 

Some of you may think I'm lying but I got 26 minus firefox to write on this site and the task manager I need to open to check. Kinda depends if I want speed or beauty. I disable tons of windows networking and system services. I use Tune XP, XP lite, and SafeXP, to disable things windows doesnt let me. Sometimes I have like 47-59 depending how pretty I want to make my windows. I just like a quick boot. This is on my XP machine, dell e1705.

 

Just upgraded to 2gigs.

Now I got 51-55 processes running depending on if I use Yahoo Widgets, ZoneAlarm, MSN, Firefox, etc.

2gigs feels terrific.

 

26 thats nothing,
21 with Itunes, wireless networking, and firefox on.
My audio workstation runs at 18, less if I turn networking off.

 

29 with apps up. About 25 normally.
I was a bit surprised to see the poll's lower band is 0 to 40 processes. 40 seems alot :S.