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General discussion

mystery program

by Qvn98 Feb 18, 2006 12:58PM PST

I reformatted my desktop to the original configuration that Compaq sent me and now my screen saver many times won't turn on. When it finally turns on, there is this mystery program that flashes on at the bottom of my start menu and immediately goes away. It does this roughly every 5 minutes and turns my screen saver goes away. How can I find out what this program is that keeps turning running and turn it off? Can anyone please help me?
Compaq Presario S5000NX
Celeron 1.50 ghz
window XP
thanks

Discussion is locked

3 Posts
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Do the three finger click. . .
by Coryphaeus Feb 18, 2006 8:11PM PST

ctrl/alt/del and look at the Proceses tab. This will tell you what is running in the background.

It's probably something you have looking for on-line updates.

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task manager
by Qvn98 Feb 20, 2006 3:29AM PST

I did the CTRL/ALT/Delete and it show about 45 programs running. Should it be this much? Can can I get rid of it and which ones can I keep?

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QVN, Try These Steps..
by Grif Thomas Former Forum moderator Feb 20, 2006 9:56AM PST

Follow the procedures below to eliminate some of those unnecessary start up programs and services, then clean out all the junk files and it should get your computer running smoother. It may take a while to follow all the steps but it should help substantially.

For Windows 2000/XP, ignore the first couple of sentences about checking "resources" and the "Performance" tab in the link below but follow the rest of the procedures including the "Services" links at the bottom.

How To Shut Down Unnecessary Start Up Programs

Because the links for the "Services" are no longer functioning in the link above, use this one:

Services Guide For Windows XP

Next, clean out the junk files:

How To Clean Unwanted Files From The Hard Drive

If you're also using Service Pack 2 on Windows XP, then tidy up a little more with the instructions in the link below:

Cleanup After SP2 Installation
http://aumha.org/win5/a/sp2faq.php#after

After following all the procedures above, run Error Checking/Chkdsk and Defrag to optimize the hard drive:

How To Run 'Error Checking/Chkdsk' On Win2000/XP

Hope this helps.

Grif

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