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which you may be able to disable would require a more detailed knowledge of your system and what these services do. Also, there are other processes that may be running in Windows, started from registry entries, items in the Startup folder, and a number of other sources. You can see which processes are running on your system by running the task manager (Ctrl-Alt-Del -

> Task Manager) and selecting the Processes tab. With the task manager you can kill any of these processes (if you know which ones should be killed), but unless you find out where they're being loaded from and remove the source, they will start again when Windows is restarted. All these processes, including the services can be managed with a program called Wintask 5 (liutilities.com). This tool (a CNET Editor's Choice) gives you access to one of the most complete process libraries available, with the ability to identify, remove, or block undesirable processes. It costs about $30.00, but a free trial can be downloaded from the company's website.

Malware

Some processes that show up on a PC may actually be malicious software (malware). Most people prepare for viruses and the like, but studies show that spyware and adware may actually be bigger threats these days. Checking your system out on http://www.processlibrary.com/ processscan/ can help you identify any malicious software running on your system (it's a free scan). You can then use the various tools like Wintask or a utility specifically created to deal with malware to remove them. Wintask can also block them from ever running again.

Monitoring and controlling the processes that run on your PC are essential activities if you want to keep it running at peak efficiency.

Learn more about this author, Joe Poniatowski.
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