RAM USAGE

[Leon Slutzkin]

Is there a diagnostic tool which I can use which will tell me what is
running in the background that I don't need when my PC boots up? I seem to
use a lot of RAM even when nothing is open.

Also, I leave my PC on all the time. At regular intervals during the day &
night my speakers make a double click noise followed by the Microsoft
Exclamation sound. Has this anything to do with my Outlook e-mail account
being set to automatic timed download? It seems that something is trying to
run. In the task bar are Task Scheduler, ASUS enhanced functions, McAfee
Viruschecker & Firewall, Messenger and Sony Phone Sync icons.

[Mike Preston]

On Thu, 29 Sep 2005 12:56:31 +0200, "Leon Slutzkin"
<sl******@kingsley.co.za> wrote:

Is there a diagnostic tool which I can use which will tell me what is
running in the background that I don't need when my PC boots up? I seem to
use a lot of RAM even when nothing is open.

Also, I leave my PC on all the time. At regular intervals during the day &
night my speakers make a double click noise followed by the Microsoft
Exclamation sound. Has this anything to do with my Outlook e-mail account
being set to automatic timed download? It seems that something is trying to
run. In the task bar are Task Scheduler, ASUS enhanced functions, McAfee
Viruschecker & Firewall, Messenger and Sony Phone Sync icons.

You might have better luck with this in another newsgroup.

mike

[lylefair]

TaskManager (right click on the TaskBar at the bottom of the screen),
HiJackThis (search on Google), and Start-Run-Services.msc come to mind.
These are !!!!POWERFUL BUT DANGEROUS!!!!

My experience is that most computers have 3,728 unnecessary processes
running, one might say secretly, or at least not the knowledge of their
owners.
Getting rid of these processes can be very difficult. Those that
rewrite themselves to the one of the Run Keys in the Registry, and
rename themselves come to mind.

And if you can get rid of them, you come face to face with a bigger
problem: Should you?

A detailed discussion of this is beyond me and probably should occur in
a Windows group.

[David W. Fenton]

"lylefair" <ly******@yahoo.ca> wrote in
news:11*********************@g47g2000cwa.googlegro ups.com:

TaskManager (right click on the TaskBar at the bottom of the
screen), HiJackThis (search on Google), and Start-Run-Services.msc
come to mind. These are !!!!POWERFUL BUT DANGEROUS!!!!
I use Process Explorer from www.sysinternals.com.
My experience is that most computers have 3,728 unnecessary
processes running, one might say secretly, or at least not the
knowledge of their owners.
This is usually indicated by a system tray that is so full of icons
that it extends halfway across the TaskBar.
Getting rid of these processes can be very difficult. Those that
rewrite themselves to the one of the Run Keys in the Registry, and
rename themselves come to mind.
I have the Run key in my registry set to Read-Only for all users so
that programs can't write to it. This is the only way I know to
prevent things like RealPlayer from continually re-install
themselves.
And if you can get rid of them, you come face to face with a
bigger problem: Should you?

A detailed discussion of this is beyond me and probably should
occur in a Windows group.

Yep, but it sure is a widespread problem.

--
David W. Fenton http://www.bway.net/~dfenton
dfenton at bway dot net http://www.bway.net/~dfassoc

[lylefair]

David W. Fenton wrote:

I have the Run key in my registry set to Read-Only for all users so
that programs can't write to it.

I didn't know this was possible. I will have to find out how; perhaps,
you will tell me (us).

[Bri]

lylefair wrote:

David W. Fenton wrote:

I have the Run key in my registry set to Read-Only for all users so
that programs can't write to it.

I didn't know this was possible. I will have to find out how; perhaps,
you will tell me (us).

In Regedit find the key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Run
Right click on the Run Key and pick Permissions, Standard permissions
dialog appears.

Assumes: WinNT, Win2K, WinXP, while logged in as an admin level user

--
Bri

[David W. Fenton]

Bri <no*@here.com> wrote in news:kld%e.8808$oW2.5612@pd7tw1no:

lylefair wrote:

David W. Fenton wrote:

I have the Run key in my registry set to Read-Only for all users
so that programs can't write to it.

I didn't know this was possible. I will have to find out how;
perhaps, you will tell me (us).

In Regedit find the key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Run
Right click on the Run Key and pick Permissions, Standard
permissions dialog appears.

Assumes: WinNT, Win2K, WinXP, while logged in as an admin level
user

In WinNT or Win2K, you have to use Regedt32 instead of plain old
Regedit, which lacks NT ACLs control. In WinXP and Win2K3 Server,
there's a single Regedit with the ability to set permissions.

--
David W. Fenton http://www.bway.net/~dfenton
dfenton at bway dot net http://www.bway.net/~dfassoc