processes?

Gentlemen,

I am quite computer literate but do not know what "processes" are in Task manager.

It looks like a lot of stuff is running and part of my maintenance is making sure nothing is running that does not have to.

Can anyone tell me what should be there and what should not.

Thanks,

ken

PS Antivirus software seems to be a waste. I have not run any in two years with ZERO problems and my computer ROCKS.

crss.exe
dwm.exe
explorer.exe
winlogin.exe

should be there and every program you are running

svhost.exe too,
But it is easier to tell you which ones should not run if you copy and paste what you have running we can tell you if you need it or not, what i did, as i wanted the same thing i went start typed msconfig.exe, or if you are using Windows Xp go run msconfig.exe, and then went to startup and disable any that i do not want. so now i have 35 prosesses on startup plus i open up a few programs like skype and MSN that work in the background. so i have usually 40-42 processes running, but i do have a Kaspersky total protection. so that adds 4 more prosesses although i did unclude it above.

Post a screenshot and we can tell you what it is and whether it is needed or not.