How to identify, stop and prevent background processes?

Hello there!

I recently had an occasion to go to the DOS, well the "command prompt" as it is called now, and executed a command, which I think was called Tasklist. It listed an enormous list of processes that were running on my computer. Things like the Adobe updater, Apple phone support, etc. And I don't even have an iPhone (yet)! How can I identify these to figure out which is what and then turn off the ones I do not want, and most importantly, how do I make sure they don't come back?

Thanks A LOT!!!

Well you could go through your services.msc program and choose to disable the processes you don't use. However, this can be very dangerous if you don't know exactly what you're doing. I suggest that you go through your startup programs and close those that you don't use on a regular basis.

Start > Search "msconfig" > Programs > Deselect those you don't wish to use at startup.

notsograymatter,

Thank you, I will do just that. But what about all the "processes" that are not started in msconfig, and how do I prevent the apps from re-enabling their startup processes?

I appreciate your help!

Well, I appreciate all of the comments that were made here, as I state in the following text, I am going to do a Macrium system image restore, but after I do that I will use all of your helpful input to identify unnecessry background processes and disable them. However, I do have a few last needs as outlined below:

Well, I finally figured out how to get my system to recognize the Macrium Images I previously made, so I am going to restore to a clean system restore I made before I started having problems, then re-do making the Data partition, and moving the files appropriately. So, I am good to go. There are a couple of things that would still help though:

1. A Windows 7 OS save settings/export settings tool which would save the customizations I have made since the clean, stable install;

2. An Outlook settings transfer tool, which would transfer or export the email setups, as well as all of the Outlook Options I have personally configured; and

3. A way to determine what changes I have made to my system since the Macrium Image was created. That way, I can pick and choose which apps I want to reinstall and which ones I do not. I tried going in to the System Restore settings, and it turns out that, when I created the Data partition and moved the files, it turned off the System Restore. Nevertheless, there were many changes made before that, which may have created restore points that I could use to identify the changes that need to be re-made. If there is a 'back door' into the System Restore log, or another system change log, it would be very advantageous to have.

So, if anyone can help me with any of these, I would have the utmost gratitude. Bill2 was kind and diligent enough to locate a superb tool for exporting my Internet Explorer settings, so that will prove most helpful. If I had such a tool for Outlook [2010], and Windows 7 OS settings, I would be ecstatic!

Thanks to all who contributed to my dilemma. I cannot express in words how grateful I am for you sharing your knowledge and insights with me. I will be "awarding rep" later today, after things settle out and I find out which posts I can give the rep to. This forum kind of limits the rep I can spread around, but I will try to give as much credit where it is due.

With utmost appreciation,

TVeblen said:

There are programs that will help you identify which processes are running and what program they are affiliated with. You can do a search and look at a few to see which meets your needs best.

Here is one from MS: Process Explorer

Alternately, you can usually just do a search on the process .exe to get that info.

In my opinion, any program that can not be easily configured to not load automatically is poorly written or intentional bloatware and an alternative program should be found.

But as others have said, be sure you know exactly what the process does and what it is affiliated with before doing any alterations.

I just wanted to reiterate my thanks for this resource. I appreciate it!