Mjolnir

Sometimes, processes running in the background can consume too much of your system resources. By closing down those extraneous processes you'll free up system resources for more important things....like games.

The thing is, how do you know what is extraneous and what isn't?

Do this:
Ctrl+Alt+Delete to bring up task manager.
Under the processes tab, sort the processes by User ID.

See all the processes running under the category of your User ID? All of those can be shut down with the exception of Explorer.exe

There are other SYSTEM processes that can be shut down, and a guy who goes by the monicker Black Viper has a great page on setting up your PC with different process profiles, but this is quick and easy and you can't mess anything up. The downside is it resets each time you power down your PC.

Another option is to use msconfig.exe to change the way windows boots up. Call up the program, then go to the services and processes tab to check or uncheck the services you want windows to start with. Hit 'apply'. The changes should take effect the next time you start your machine.

Lostnhell

You forgot to mention that you can enter msconfig from the run option, and modify the options in the startup tab to safely shutdown system processes where they do not start when you start windows.

Mental

another good resource for determining whether you need them or not is http://www.processlibrary.com/ . they have a huge library of them and tell you what each of them are

aznchowboy650

msconfig doesn't work in windows xp only in 2000 and 98 in xp you have to go through run - regedit - local machine - software - microsoft - windows - current version - run

Mental

uhhhhh... yes it does work in windows xp

aznchowboy650

are u sure ur running windows xp b/c i bet alot that msconfig doesn't work

YiffyGriffy

Maybe not XP Home, but I run XP Pro and have already edited things throguh msconfig and services.msc ;)

Mental

go to your start menu, click run, in the text field type "msconfig" without quotes, click the ok button, and bam the system configuration utility comes up. what are you smoking?

it works with Win XP Home and Pro

Mjolnir

Sorry, misunderstood what you were doing.

Mental

i wasnt trying to put down your faq i was just trying to add to it, and then i was clarifying with aznchowboy