Programs running in background

[dbonniwell]

Is there anyway I can see what programs are running in the background of XP pro?
I would like to disbable them before playing oblivion if possible.
thanks in advance

 

[Rik]

Start, run , type services.msc, press enter.

That will come up with plenty of information for you.

 

[dbonniwell]

Thanks so much for your reply.
So everything listed here is running in the background, Are they shut down when you do a clean boot via msconfig?

 

[Rik]

Only removing them via services.msc will stop them completely, but, be warned. It's possible to do serious damage to your windows install if you don't know what you are doing.

If you have programs running that you dont need it is much much safer to uninstall them.

 

[dbonniwell]

Thanks so much for your reply.
So everything listed here is running in the background, Are they shut down when you do a clean boot via msconfig?

 

[Rik]

You will have to be more specific about what you mean by that!

 

[dbonniwell]

Perhaps I errored in thinking.
I assmed that some of the activity in the going background would be suspended (Not Deleated) if one were to do a clean boot via msconfig

 

[Rik]

I still have no idea what you mean by "clean boot"!

 

[Mictlantecuhtli]

services.msc only lists Windows services, that's all, not necessarily background applications like nView, Steam (which installs a service in Vista), XFire, MSN etc.

Task Manager lists running applications (usually all). tasklist and tasklist /svc lists running applications and short service names.

 

[dbonniwell]

Thanks for your reply
Here is what I mean by clean boot

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310353/en-us

 

[Rik]

What exactly are you trying to achive?

 

[dbonniwell]

I was hoping to shut down (Not Delete) unnecessary programs running in the background while playing Oblivion.

 

[Rik]

In that case, taskmanager as Mictlantecuhtli suggested is the safest way to do it.