What are all these processes?

[roamdog]

On my laptop (Thinkpad T60P with 2gb of memory), when I tried to move some folders around inside Outlook 2007 I got an error that said there was not enough memory to complete the action (the action was moving a folder with relatively few notes in it)?
So, I looked at running processes and there seemed to be more than I am used to seeing. So, I closed all the active applications and re-checked.
At this point, the application tab shows zero applications running.
But the Processes tab shows 78 running processes and a bunch of these are using 8K or memory.
What are all these things?
My desktop only has 44 running processes at start up and they seem to be taking 3-4K each rather than so many taking 7-8K.

Here is a picture (I do not know how to capture a list of the running processes other than by doing a screen capture).


How can I tell what is really needed and what is garbage? I do have Avast AntiVirus running and have done a scan. Nothing detected.

 

[btk1w1]

Heya roamdog,

There do seem to be quite a few running processes, and there a few that are unneeded at startup such as ipodservice and itunes helper. These can be initiated whenever they're needed.

That being said, it is very difficult to help working from a screenshot, and as far as I can tell there might even be a few processes listed that don't show. Task manager won't show hidden processes also, malware generally tries to hide alot of what it is doing if it is present.

You need an analyser to draw out the processes and export them to a notepad document. An excellent tool for this is hijackthis.

The program download will start automatically:
[/url]http://www.trendsecure.com/portal/en-US/_download/HJTInstall.exe

1. Save " HJTInstall.exe" to your desktop.
2. Double click on HJTInstall.exe to run the program.
3. By default it will install to C:\Program Files\Trend Micro\HijackThis.
4. Accept the license agreement by clicking the "I Accept" button.
5. Click on the "Do a system scan and save a log file" button. It will scan and then ask you to save the log.
6. Once the scan is complete a notepad document will appear on the desktop.

When you have the notepad document open you can copy and paste all of the contents into an online analyser, one is linked below.

http://www.hijackthis.de/ HijackTh... at startup and what is needed. CONTINUED>>>

 

[btk1w1]

The links above appear to not have worked, but you can copy and paste them into your browser address bar.

I've linked two very good free tools below.

The first is an antimalware application, Malware Bytes AntiMalware (MBAM), which has very high detection and removal success rates. I keep this on my computers and run them regularly as I would an anti-virus program. This program will happily play alongside Avast and your firewall also.

The program download will start automatically:
http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam/pr... link below will take you to their homepage: http://www.winpatrol.com/

If you decide to run the tools and have anymore questions about any of the findings please post back and we will help further.

 

[btk1w1]

OK... This is frustrating, half of the second post is missing and the MBAM link is broken.

Details about WinPatrol:

This is an excellent utility that lets you take full control of your pc. What starts up, delayed startups, what tries to load itself onto your system and whether you will allow it (you should know when you want to install something onto your computer and then you would allow whatever system change). WinPatrol isn't a resource hog and lies resident, guarding your pc for you.

MBAM download locations:
http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam/program/mbam-setup.exe http://www.majorgeeks.com/Malwarebytes_Anti-Malware_d5756.html

Hopefully these ones work.

 

[pat mcgroin]

type process into google and it will show several sites that will tell which processes come from where.
You can then decide which, depending on your system you really require.