What are all those startup tasks during bootup?

What I usually do when I'm working on a computer is to type in the program name that I have in Google. That will show you what the program is and in most cases the affect it has on your computer. According to Microsoft svchost.exe is a program that: "checks the services part of the registry to construct a list of services that it must load. Multiple instances of Svchost.exe can run at the same time. Each Svchost.exe session can contain a grouping of services. Therefore, separate services can run, depending on how and where Svchost.exe is started. This grouping of services permits better control and easier debugging." Like I said in the subject line, Google is your friend.

I'm not affiliated with any of these sites, however as computers get faster I've grown more impatient. So I'd like to introduce you to my favorite sites. The first site I ever found about six years ago was www.blackviper.com since then the site has gotten even better.On the home page of BlackViper, in the main body, this very issue is addressed for XPsp2 and Vista. Whats nice about this site is the expanation of how to go about stopping unnecessary running processes as well as what they are and what program they support.
Another good site would be AnswersThatWork.com along with various computer related information there is a task list that defines several task, if they are needed and a recommendation.
One of my favorites is PcPitStop.com you will have to download thier activex but the results are with it. PC Pit Stop will run a series of test on your computer which include running proccesses and whether or not they are necessary, along with this they will cover a large variety of information on what you can do to improve you performance in general.
Should all else fail and there is still a process that hasn't been identified, do a search on the web there is a very good chance that someone has put out the information your looking for.
Last but not least there are retail programs available that perform most of this work for you, if you lack the time yourself.
Victor

Keep off position your PC not to see he problems.

dont terminate svchost.exe if you do it cause system failure. svchost is a host application for other windows programs.

you can check out libraryprocess.com its a great source of information.

My system is similar and for years I've fumed at the stupidity of such cryptic nonsense that noone but the programmer who created it can decipher. WHY THE BIG SECRETS?

Why does Microsoft prefer legions of frustrated, angry "customers" (like we have any choice) rather than provide the average user with FULL EXPLANATIONS for such things as mysterious programs that eat up expensive memory. While they're at it, how about clear explanations of what error messages mean?

There are some free utilities to identify processes in the task manager, but the absolute best I have seen is Uniblue Wintasks Professional which costs approx. $50 (you can search the web for discounts too) but it is worth it. They have the largest feed database of programs. It lists processes just like Windows Task Manager, but when you click on the process, it shows a complete description of the process and advise as how to deal with it. I have been using it for a year now and have not been disappointed.

To find what starting on your computer go to start>programs>startup> a list of elective programs can be found here. You can choose which ones you can live without and delete them.

Services are found in start>programs>administrative services>services> right click, open>open normal window (so you can see them). Expand description so it can be read. Most are fairly easy to figure out. Some you will need to search the web for. then ask yourself these questions does this service need to be opened by the computer (automatic). Will this be a service that I will open (manual)? then if your really really sure. Can I disable it (disable)? Here's a hint 90% you wont be disabling. How do I know, the hard way.

You will also see these services in task manager as well. If there in services then there probably all right. But nothing beats a good anti-hacker and anti-virus program to be sure. I'd suggest you go to Sysinternals at Microsoft and get Process explorer it has many good features but you will need to give it some time to understand it. Please note that although many processes are shown in task manager and process explorer only a few are actually doing anything. Click on CPU at the top of the list and they will all group together giving you a clearer few of whats actually happening. In my XP pro. sp2 usually less then 8 are running at any one time. But some of them really eat up resources. Cideamon.exe, for example, uses 50% percent of my multi-threader when its running. Also, note that the priorities of each can be reset but this must be done carefully or you'll start over taxing your system. Take this slow. For instance internet explorer might be set higher. If you run your anti-virus as a stand alone application then move it up. These are just a few examples. Everyones machines and needs are different. You might want to make a list of what you've changed so, if things go wrong, you'll know what you did.

Right now I'm running 85 or so processes, about 850 threads but my processor is idling along at about 50%. That just fine. But turn on the tunes, watch some vids, as your running three maintenance items in the background and your CPUs going to cook. It might be best to leave the maintenance for later. This is for me, but I think overheating is a bigger issue then too many processes. Keep your CPU running cool and your system well maintained and you can run 100 processes and 1000 threads at 100% of CPU capacity. Besides if your running too many processes guess how put them on there. Only keep the really good stuff and clean out those files.

Of course some wont agree.

I was able to link what was running in my processes to what I actually needed by Googling</a> each one! You can use msconfig (Start, Run, Msconfig) to turn off startup programs. It is always best to disable startup programs from the initial program, but that's not always possible.

Another good site to check your bootup apps is Bleeping Computer (http://www.bleepingcomputer.com). I have been able to get the lowdown on my running processes quickly with this site. They have a very good search for running processes, applications, and bootup apps.

listed in Task Manager are those programs currently being executed. Some of these processes are always Windows components; others are related to tasks, services, and applications being executed at the time. When you first turn on the system, this includes everything specified in the startup file as well as any started by the registry. Almost certainly some of these processes are related to your antivirus, your firewall, and to some peripheral drivers. In my ?minimal? system, there are 40 processes running at startup, using 270 MB of memory; In another system with more in the startup, there are over 50 processes. Therefore, your 49 processes using 300 MB is not at all out of line.

The names of these processes are the names of the executable (.exe) files that are running. Sometimes, especially for apps, the name may give you a clue: for example, excel is just that, winword is MS Word (any version), and taskmgr is rather obvious. But as you have noticed, these names are often cryptic and offer few clues as to what they are for. In your case, for example, shstat is the McAfee Virus Scan; UdaterUI is the McAfee Common User Interface; issch is the Install Shield Update Service; wmiprvse is Windows Management Instrumentation. For such as these you need to refer to a process library to learn not only the function of the process, but what calls it, if it is essential or could be suspended, if it is safe or possibly malware, etc. There are a number of such lists on the Web; you can google ?windows processes? to find them. Two that I regularly use are:

Uniblue

AnswersThatWork

The free utility Process Explorer, which can be obtained at CNet's download.com, is also useful in that it provides more information on processes than does Task Manager (but only on processes ? there is nothing on apps, performance, networking, or users. In most cases it does include a brief description of the process and the name of the company that supplied it. The processes are also displayed in tree form and are color-coded. It is still desirable at times to refer to a process library to learn more about the process. I have found it advantageous to copy the Task Manager Processes page to Word and print it out. This simplifies the process library lookups, and serves as a reference for finding new processes that may be added at any time.

You questioned the multiple occurrences of svchost. This is normal and necessary. It is the generic host process for Win32 services that run from .dll files. To find out what is being hosted by each instance of svchost, go to the command prompt (Run cmd.exe) and type tasklist /svc (This works in XP Pro -- I am not sure if XP Home has this feature). Again, the names will be cryptic, but you can find many of them in the process libraries. For others, you may need to google the name itself.

Another Windows service that may appear more than once is wmiprvse. If it does, it is necessary ? so don?t worry about it, and don?t stop it.

Hope this helps

Frank

Message was edited by: admin to add links

Hi Larry,
Your computer booting up with 300mb occupied itself is a bad sign. The programs you mentioned (shstat.exe, UdaterUI.exe, wmiprvse.exe, issch.exe, etc...) are the abbr. of the user programs you have installed. For example, UdaterUI.exe maybe a calender, or a an updater that is configured to start on bootup. Just check the program settings of that particular program to block it from starting on booting up. Alternatively type " msconfig " in the "run" dialogue to enter the system configuration utility. Under the tab "startup", a list of all programs scheduled to start on booting is available. Also a list of currently running programs is available under the tab "services".

Regarding the numerous "SVCHOST.EXE" programs running, its not a problem to be bothered about. SVCHOST (Generic Host Process for Win32 Services) is used to check the programs and load the one's required. SVCHOST.EXE's started as LOCAL SERVICE, NETWORK SERVICE, SYSTEM, are system services, essential for running your system smoothly. Its advisable not to stop them manually. However, if a SVCHOST.EXE is started under your username, it just MIGHT be a virus, spyware, or a torjan. Before endind that program, please confirm it causes a negative impact on your system.

Also, if you resort to programs which claim to minimize the load on your system or RAM basically, check the reviews before installing them. Many freeware's of such kind exist, but they do not do the job.

A suggestion from personal experience is to manage startup programs manually. Just glance through the programs you have installed (Start > All programs) and the programs scheduled to run at startup. Most likely, you will be able to figure what programs like shstat.exe, UdaterUI.exe, wmiprvse.exe and issch.exe are. Make your decision.

P.S if there are any spelling mistake's above, Please Ignore. The reason being I have not installed a spell-check in the Browser since even that consumes a slight part of my memory.

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Answer:

Task Manager Process List

For those of you who may not know, you can think of processes as programs or parts of programs that are currently running on your computer. Even though you may not be aware of it, your computer is almost always doing something. You get a partial idea of what your computer is up to by checking the number of processes running on your computer by going into your task manager and selecting process tab by tapping the Ctrl+Alt+Del keys.

Checking the number of processes running is fine for a spot check, but the best way to deal with too many processes is to first make sure your computer is totally clean. By clean I mean that you should:
1. Fully scan your computer for all Viruses, Malware and Spyware
2. Uninstalled all programs that you do not use or need
3. Stop programs from starting during boot. You can do this by going into many of your programs such as Instant Messenger and unchecking the box that tells it to load at startup.
4. Use MSCONFIG from to check your startup items and uncheck the ones that you do not want to start. If you are unsure of any items listed, leave them or perform a Google search to learn more about them. START > RUN > Type ?msconfig? > Press Enter> Click on the STARTUP Tab.

Once you have your system fairly clean you can now start looking at the individual processes running in the process list. You can go down thru the list one by one and perform a Google search on each process or go to http://www.tasklist.org/tasklist_s.html or http://www.liutilities.com/products/wintaskspro/processlibrary/ or http://www.processlibrary.com/ or http://processlist.com/ to learn more about each process. Note: If you choose to END a process from task manager, this will only end that process until the next time you restart your computer.

The number of processes running on your computer at any given moment is dependent on a huge number of factors such as:

1. What operating system you are running ? Because of all the extras, Windows Media Edition usually has the highest number of processes running.

2. Installed Hardware ? Extra Drivers to control hardware such as high end Video, Sound cards as well as modems and other extras can increase the number of processes running. Even installing an All-In-One printer can add several new processes to your list.

3. How many devices you have plugged in ? Your numbers will continue to rise if you have a ton of devices plugged in such hard drives, web cams, joy sticks, printers and scanners.

4. The software that you have installed ? Many software packages have updaters and other components running all the time even when you are not actually using the program.

5. Security Software Installed ? Some All-in-one security suites that have Antivirus, Antispyware, firewall, Antispam, Antiphishing and Anti-everything can add a large number of processes.

6. When you take the reading ? Your numbers can vary greatly depending on what is going on inside your computer at that moment. Antivirus software could be checking your drive for viruses or Windows could be downloading updates.

7. Number of Programs currently running ? Every program that is actually running will add to the process list.

8. Programs set to run at Start Up ? Many programs may be set to start automatically upon boot such as Instant Messenger, Winzip, Real Player and Windows Messenger.

9. Virus, Malware and Spyware Activity - Process numbers can rise with any unwanted activity, so make sure your computer is totally clean of all Viruses and Spyware.

10. Number of Users - Having more than one user logged into your computer can also increase the total number of processes.

To give you an idea of what numbers are possible. A clean install of Windows XP on a basic stripped down computer without any extra hardware can be as low as 21-25 processes running. After installing some basics such as a simple printer, Antivirus Software, Microsoft Office, and Adobe Reader you might end up around 29-36. Now on the other side of this, I have gone into the local computer store and checked the number of processes running on a brand new Windows XP Multimedia computer and found as many as 75 processes running. With all the trial and Free software that is pre installed at the factory, I have found many new computers right out of the box are in the 50?s and 60?s. Determining how many processes your computer should have running is not an easy task and can take a fair amount of time to research. Just as an example: A quick check of the 5 WIndows XP computers that I have on my bench right now, I get 48,39,42,30,and 32 total processes running.

There are a number of tools available to help you fine tune what is running on your computer. SpyBot Search and Destroy and Microsoft Defender both come with some advanced tools to help identify and shut down unwanted startup items.

NOTE: Shutting down some processes may prevent your computer from working correctly.

It would be impossible to tell you what processes you need or don?t need without all the information about your computer?s hardware, software and knowing something about your personal preferences.

Best of luck!

Dana
Wayland Computer

http://forums.cnet.com/5208-6122_102-0.html?forumID=7&threadID=251386&messageID=2509871#2509871

Submitted by: waytron

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Answer:

Mystery Processes...

Larry,

It's fairly simple to figure out exactly what those mystery processes are. There are sites dedicated to explaining exactly what those mystery executables are doing.

Google (and other search engines, for that matter) are your friend. Simply type the name of the process and search it out. As a for instance, Google returns about 105,000 hits for SHSTAT.EXE and the first hit for a site called liutilities.com says the file is part of McAfee's antivirus suite and should NOT be messed with.

The second file you specified - UDATERUI.EXE - only resulted in 644 hits and likewise is the common user interface of McAfee's AV suite and probably shouldn't be disabled.

WMIPRVSE.EXE is a much more popular search item resulting in 231,000 hits and liutilities.com reports this file as being a part of MS Windows Management Interface (hence the WMI).

ISSCH.EXE is a component of the InstallShield installer package. It updates InstallShield software to make sure it's up to date. It shouldn't be turned off unless you suspect it might be causing problems elsewhere.

The SVCHOST.EXE service host is a Windows component that runs various services - like the all important Windows Log on Service. Without those services, Windows won't ever be able to run anything.

There are articles on the web you can find about which Windows services are essential to keeping your system chugging happily along and which ones can be terminated without causing major problems.

You'll want to access those services from the Windows Management Console (Right-click on MY Computer and select "Manage") or the Services control panel applet. Do not try killing services from Task Manager. Chances are those services will restart themselves again on their own or will cause BIG problems.

Some services can be disabled with prejudice and won't affect the way your system works - like the Messenger service. This is NOT the Window Messenger IM client - but is a bit of a throwback to command line era networking where you could type in something like:

Send /all "Hello World"

And you would see the text "Hello World" pop up on your screen. The modern day equivalent to this confines the text output into a pop-up window. While in a large, corporate setting, this could be very useful - a network admin could send out a message telling all users that the server was about to be "bounced" (shut down and restarted), saving the guy a lot of running around; in the case of single computers or even small networks, this service is quite useless, not to mention annoying. It can be safely disabled.

In some cases, there's even a dark side to the Messenger service. Spammers have caught on to this service. While they can't pass any nasty malware onto your system using this, they can annoy you to no end. You're sitting there, writing a note and up pops an ad for some fake pharmacy selling Viagra, low cost re-fi's on your non-existent mortgage and the usual plethora of spam topics. This service is best turned off unless you've got an actual need for it.

Other services that can be safely disabled include things like Fast User Switching - so long as you're the only user on the system. The Smart Card service is kind of useless - especially if your computer is not equipped with a smart card reader and can be turned off. The Terminal Services and Uninterruptible Power Supply Services can likewise be disabled if you're not using them.

The bottom line with services - a lot of it depends on services you need and want to keep up and running.

http://forums.cnet.com/5208-6122_102-0.html?forumID=7&threadID=251386&messageID=2509226#2509226

Submitted by: Wolfie2k5

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Answer:



Processes listed in Task Manager are those programs currently being executed. Some of these processes are always Windows components; others are related to tasks, services, and applications being executed at the time. When you first turn on the system, this includes everything specified in the startup file as well as any started by the registry. Almost certainly some of these processes are related to your antivirus, your firewall, and to some peripheral drivers. In my ?minimal? system, there are 40 processes running at startup, using 270 MB of memory; In another system with more in the startup, there are over 50 processes. Therefore, your 49 processes using 300 MB is not at all out of line.

The names of these processes are the names of the executable (.exe) files that are running. Sometimes, especially for apps, the name may give you a clue: for example, excel is just that, winword is MS Word (any version), and taskmgr is rather obvious. But as you have noticed, these names are often cryptic and offer few clues as to what they are for. In your case, for example, shstat is the McAfee Virus Scan; UdaterUI is the McAfee Common User Interface; issch is the Install Shield Update Service; wmiprvse is Windows Management Instrumentation. For such as these you need to refer to a process library to learn not only the function of the process, but what calls it, if it is essential or could be suspended, if it is safe or possibly malware, etc. There are a number of such lists on the Web; you can google ?windows processes? to find them. Two that I regularly use are:

Uniblue

AnswersThatWork

The free utility Process Explorer, which can be obtained at CNet's download.com, is also useful in that it provides more information on processes than does Task Manager (but only on processes ? there is nothing on apps, performance, networking, or users. In most cases it does include a brief description of the process and the name of the company that supplied it. The processes are also displayed in tree form and are color-coded. It is still desirable at times to refer to a process library to learn more about the process. I have found it advantageous to copy the Task Manager Processes page to Word and print it out. This simplifies the process library lookups, and serves as a reference for finding new processes that may be added at any time.

You questioned the multiple occurrences of svchost. This is normal and necessary. It is the generic host process for Win32 services that run from .dll files. To find out what is being hosted by each instance of svchost, go to the command prompt (Run cmd.exe) and type tasklist /svc (This works in XP Pro -- I am not sure if XP Home has this feature). Again, the names will be cryptic, but you can find many of them in the process libraries. For others, you may need to google the name itself.

Another Windows service that may appear more than once is wmiprvse. If it does, it is necessary ? so don?t worry about it, and don?t stop it.

Hope this helps

Frank

http://forums.cnet.com/5208-6122_102-0.html?forumID=7&threadID=251386&messageID=2513225#2513225

Submitted by: El Alquimista

There is a FREE application available that can help you out in identifying what the startup programs are, seeing which ones are currently running, Managing which programs should run, be disabled, or REMOVED, and can also locate where they reside on your hard drive!!!
Strangely enough it is a Microsoft Application called WINDOWS DEFENDER!

Yes, Windows Defender has a tool called Software Explorer.
It allows you to see EVERYTHING that is in your startup, which is currently running, and also gives it a SPYNET rating!!!
You can also see which applications that are running are currently connected to your Network/Internet connection, and those that are providing WINSOCK services for your Network/Internet connection as well.

GOOD LUCK MANAGING YOUR STARTUPS !!!


Pete...

On my computer I'm running 78 processes and 791 threads. That sounds like to much but I have a Intel Pentium D CPU. Pentium Ds are dual processors so, that means two CPUs. In my case the numbers would be divided in half or 39 processes/CPU and 395.5 threads/CPU. If Larry's' running a Pentium D he would be running 24.5 processes and 150 threads/CPU. If he's running a Intel extreme processor then divide 49 processes by 4 or 17 processes per CPU.

Jeez all you people wasting time with PC bootup...
XP logo, with "STARTING UP..." on bottom taking 10 mins..

I used to go the bathroom as my pc was loading up.


Here is best and easiest solution...
BUY A MAC!!!

It'll burn any PC in startup time PERIOD.

No need to look up processes at startup, blah blah, and spyware coming on.. Just turn it on, and by the time you sit down its all loaded up.

How do you people waste time w/ PC. JEEZ!!

BUY A MAC!!

The following is the best tasklist site I've found, it has no ads or other garbage, just plain information. Also tells you what the file does, whether to keep it, and how to get rid of it. Good site!

http://www.answersthatwork.com/Tasklist_pages/tasklist.htm

M. Lowe