Background programs-What can I shut down?

[Huskertko]

Does anyone know what if any programs running in the background I can shut down when using EMC9 to optimize performance? I can go to Task Manager and see there are a lot of other programs, some System and some "user name". I assume that I shouldn't shut any System programs down, but what about the "user name" ones. I already shut down Webroot and McAffee whenever I use EMC9, but video editing is still very slow with the computer hanging or not responding.

 

This is basically my system:

 

1 221-5231 Dimension 4700 Series,Intel Pentium 4 Processor 520 with HT Technology (2.8GHz)

1 311-3621 1Gig SDRAM at 400MHz

1 320-4135 17 in (17 in viewable) E173FP Flat Panel Display

1 320-3873 128MB PCI Express x16 (DVI/VGA/TV-out) ATI Radeon X300 SE

1 341-0883 80GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM)

1 420-4834 Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition,Service Pack 2,English

1 420-4927 Windows Media Player 10

1 430-0412 Intel Pro 100M Integrated PCI NIC Card

1 412-0705 Adobe Acrobat Reader 6.0

1 463-4827 16X DVD+/-RW Drive

1 420-5079 PowerDVD Software Decoding forDVD Drives

1 313-2431 Sound Blaster Live! 24-bit ADVANCED HD Audio,100dB/Dolby Digital/96KHz/7.1

[Huskertko]

Not knowing exactly is running in the background it's hard to suggest what to shutdown. It might be a good start to do a drive clean on your hard drive and to defrag so that the system is less sluggish. Do you know how much space is left on your hard drive?

 

 

I have an 80 Gig hard drive and there is about 36 Gigs free. I am thinking of getting another hard drive and adding it so I can keep the OS and some programs on one and all my data and files on the other.

[grandpabruce]

I have an 80 Gig hard drive and there is about 36 Gigs free. I am thinking of getting another hard drive and adding it so I can keep the OS and some programs on one and all my data and files on the other.

 

That would be a good plan. Get the largest hard drive that is affordable for you.

[Beerman]

Does anyone know what if any programs running in the background I can shut down when using EMC9 to optimize performance? I can go to Task Manager and see there are a lot of other programs, some System and some "user name". I assume that I shouldn't shut any System programs down, but what about the "user name" ones. I already shut down Webroot and McAffee whenever I use EMC9, but video editing is still very slow with the computer hanging or not responding.

 

This is basically my system:

 

1 221-5231 Dimension 4700 Series,Intel Pentium 4 Processor 520 with HT Technology (2.8GHz)

1 311-3621 1Gig SDRAM at 400MHz

1 320-4135 17 in (17 in viewable) E173FP Flat Panel Display

1 320-3873 128MB PCI Express x16 (DVI/VGA/TV-out) ATI Radeon X300 SE

1 341-0883 80GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM)

1 420-4834 Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition,Service Pack 2,English

1 420-4927 Windows Media Player 10

1 430-0412 Intel Pro 100M Integrated PCI NIC Card

1 412-0705 Adobe Acrobat Reader 6.0

1 463-4827 16X DVD+/-RW Drive

1 420-5079 PowerDVD Software Decoding forDVD Drives

1 313-2431 Sound Blaster Live! 24-bit ADVANCED HD Audio,100dB/Dolby Digital/96KHz/7.1

Not knowing exactly is running in the background it's hard to suggest what to shutdown. It might be a good start to do a drive clean on your hard drive and to defrag so that the system is less sluggish. Do you know how much space is left on your hard drive?

[jeanrosenfeld]

40 to 50 or more processes running is normal, depending on your set up (e.g. whether you have a home network, etc.).

 

You could look at the things set to load at startup: Check various apps that load an icon in the system tray that you don't need, there is usually an option to disable the loading of the icon (and hence the process that runs it).

For other cases, click start, run, type msconfig, click OK. Look in the startup tab. See if there is anything there you don't really need, if so you can uncheck them there. Restart your PC. You will see a message that you are in selective mode, and msconfig opens. This is to allow you to reverse any changes you made. If you are happy with the changes, check the box at the bottom of the selective mode message, click OK, close msconfig. Next time you restart the message will not appear.

 

If you don't know what the various items relate to, you can look them up in the startup list at

 

http://www.castlecops.com/StartupList.html

 

They give advice on necessity as well.

 

There are also some Windows services that are set to start automatically, but which you may not need, depending on whether you have a stand alone PC or a home network, etc. You can disable or set some to manual startup. However this is for advanced users only, don't touch them if you are not comfortable that you understand what the services do. A reliable guide is at

 

http://www.theeldergeek.com/services_guide.htm

 

As for the 5 Roxio services and three startup items, again it depends on how you use EMC9.

If you don't want drag to disc or DMX launcher running in the background, you can stop them from loading at startup in msconfig.

If you don't use Media manager or LiveShare or My MediaSpace, you can stop Roxwatchtray from loading at startup, and you can set the 5 Roxio services to manual.