I use msconfig to limited start up apps. But the tab "services" shows many more things running. My question, what are these?

You should never play around with msconfig unless it is absolutely necessary. For example, if your CPU usage is 100% and you have no other way of killing files that are causing the problem. My recommendation would be to close it and never go back. Most of what is there is needed by your operating system to function properly. If you close the wrong items, your operating system can become inoperable.

If you look at the list of programs that in startup in msconfig, many can be removed. Every application loves to leave a little present in there. You can generally tell what app put the item in startup. If it is not an essential Windows item, uncheck it. If you find you have problems with the app afterwards, you can always recheck it.

To answer your question you need to be more specific, what programs/services specifically? I remove alot of stuff there that I know would slow me down a bit, but only remove stuff you know what it is. If you dont know ask, which you have but we cant see what you can and couldnt tell you from such a broad question.

I am happy with items in start up tab. BUt in services, i have alerter, application gateway layer service, application management, windows audio, computer browser and windows indexing system to name a few. Most are microsoft apploications. What are they?

Check out this site. http://www.blkviper.com/index.html The answers to your questions are much too lengthy for this forum. And, they can all be answered at the above mentioned site. Very useful stuff. Later..........