How can I tell what's running in the background and using up all my RAM? I've clicked ctrl-alt-delete and have 22 things listed. But what are they? Some I can figure out, but most of them don't mean a thing to me.

hi MarkD i asked basically the same question last week and this site will answer most of your questions. its a good one. you can also try to enter the info into google and get info that way too. good luck and see what else comes in, im no "guru" wojo copy and paste this site http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_pages/startup_full.htm#A

Ctrl-alt-delete will show you some but not all the programs running in the background. What you want to do is type in msconfig into Run. That will load the system configuration utility. Click on the Startup tab. Listed are all the programs operating in the background. Be careful not to uncheck system tray or any of your antivirus programs. But if you have 22+ things running in the background you should have a LOT to uncheck. Your system tray must be a mile long. It's good to know what you're unchecking before you uncheck it, even though you can always go back and check it again it you have problems. Do some research and experiment. Boojum

Mark D, you might also look at this site, it help me slim down the apps running in my background. http://www2.whidbey.net/djdenham/ Happy trimming, HAL 8000

Most of the problems I encountered is with BackWeb Agent. I uninstalled it and everything seems to be working fine. No more freeze ups. But don't know what the cons are of the uninstallation.