Optimizing Windows XP
Posted by Moses on Jan 26, 2007
This was spurred by my finding McShield misbehaving (I still haven’t solved this problem and it seems no one else has either) I found a Windows based software process list at “EF-Consulting’s System Process List” .
This site contains a list of processes in alphabetical order and gives recommendations on which to leave alone and which to remove. Most importantly it tells you how to remove unwanted process.
Out of curiosity, I fired up Task Manager and began comparing my Task List against the process list on the site. I made a few changes listed below. If you copy my changes I recommend that you backup your registry first and rather than deleting any files rename the file to filename.old. For example, rename mdm.exe to mdm.exe.old. So that it is easy to restore your previous setting should something go horribly wrong.
Processes I turned off
ALG - I use the McAfee Firewall and do not need Window Firewall Support.
Ctfmon - I do not need additional language support. Besides this will turn itself on if I ever need it. The instructions to turn this off don’t seem to apply to my computer as I am missing the Text and Speech icon in my computer. Oh well, I know it’s not a big deal, but you know what they say 1MB here, 2MB there and soon we are talking about real memory.
DLLHOST - constantly showed up in task list, turns out that I have a Java APP that came with my dell that runs in the background… Don’t know yet If I’ll keep the App
DSAgent - Wow I didn’t know this was considered spyware. MS Antispyware didn’t address it. The site recommended Spybot. I checked this out with WinTask Process Library. I found out this this is a part of the Dell Support software. This stays.
MDM - based on my profile I didn’t need it
I also used the “WinTasks Process Library” to look up any processes that I had, but wasn’t covered by ef-consulting’s site.
Last Thoughts
Truthfully, I ended up using the Windows Task Process Library as much or more than ef-consulting’s site. I don’t know how useful this exercise was in terms of freeing up more memory. I freed up approximately 10MB of memory. The real benefit is in understanding all of the processes that are running on my system and being confident that none of them are adware, spyware or viruses.
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