Too many processes running in Windows XP

[emmaringo]

My Task Manager shows too many processes running on my Windows XP Dell laptop. This is just when I have started the computer and have not yet even opened any program or done anything else.

I am attaching screengrabs of my Task Manager (had to take two screenshots because there are so many processes). Please please help me by telling me which processes are not necessary and how to stop them from starting automatically at start-up. Please be specific about the process and how to stop each of these unnecessary processes. Thank you so much!

 

[DelJo63]

You have several processes related to Tablet_*** Why? What version of Windows are you running AND are you using a touch screen?

• you don't need Folder Size updated with every access - - remove that option in the Folder View Options

 

[emmaringo]

You have several processes related to Tablet_*** Why? What version of Windows are you running AND are you using a touch screen?

• you don't need Folder Size updated with every access - - remove that option in the Folder View Options

I am running Windows XP and I also have a Wacom Bamboo Graphic Tablet so that could be the reason for the "Tablet_***" processes (I'm guessing).

I'll remove the Folder Size option, but that's just one process. What about all the others???

 

[bazz2004]

Svhost.exe (SYSTEM) You have Windows updates turned on in the Security centre. Turn that off because there will be no more updates from Microsoft for XP. It’ll show a little red warning shield in the Taskbar but you will see that activity level drop away completely.


Dell.UCM.exe This comes up on a search as a utility provided by Dell which is not part of Windows. Try right clicking it and stopping the service. Hopefully that will give a big boost to performance. You should be able to stop the program loading at Startup. CCleaner is a useful free utility that shows all programs loading at start up in Tools.


XP on my old desktop has just had a similar issue but it is now running like a train. Turning off Windows updates was an instant cure. Since Microsoft has dropped support for XP, available browsers and AV software have taken a similar hit (Internet Explorer V8 is unable to open a lot of websites). You need browser and AV versions that were working just before XP support was dropped a couple of years ago. You’ll find the required downloads if you Google for them. I'm using Avira free and Firefox with XP but there is still plenty of choice.

 

[captaincranky]

@bazz2004 Keep in mind Mozilla's support for Firefox on XP, (at least by their in browser messages), will be ending this sometime this fall.

One has to wonder if you simply will no longer get updates, or they're going to disable the browser in XP machines.

I suggest hitting Mozilla's site to find out for sure.

In other news sort of (but barely), relevant to this post, I installed Adobe Photoshop Elements 13 in an X170 / i5-6600K / Windows 7 platform machine I recently built.

As one might expect, it's tough to avoid doing the install, without the entire range of Adobe online products being install on a "get started trial offer package". The machine was 'bagging the limit' on memory use, @8GB, and it started to refuse to continue to use PSE, issuing 'out of memory" warnings.

I installed another 16 GB of memory, thinking it would cure the problem. the machine then used 23 of 24 GB, but PSE 13 kept running. Long story short, I hit the trash bin with the Adobe "try us online" package, and the memory usage returned to what someone would expect.

 

[MaikuTech]

@bazz2004
In other news sort of (but barely), relevant to this post, I installed Adobe Photoshop Elements 13 in an X170 / i5-6600K / Windows 7 platform machine I recently built.
As one might expect, it's tough to avoid doing the install, without the entire range of Adobe online products being install on a "get started trial offer package". The machine was 'bagging the limit' on memory use, @8GB, and it started to refuse to continue to use PSE, issuing 'out of memory" warnings.

Something doesn't add up here, did the installation force install other trials that you let happen ?
Did you not uninstall the trials provided by adobe after the installation ended ?
https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop-elements/system-requirements.html
Your issue sounds odd and thats a new one to me, I avoid using adobe products because of the memory it chews through.

 

[captaincranky]

@emmaringo Type "msconfig" into the search box. (Without the quotes).

Run the program, (double click on the search result), then check the "startup" tab to see what all is running. That should allow you to interpolate the startups with the running processes, and kill what you must at startup.

With XP you can also reach it by clicking "Start" > "run" (right column on start panel), type in "cmd", which pulls up a command line interface. After which, you type the same "msconfig" and hit enter.