No problem, Breenthumb - I was looking for a much simpler answer, anyway. On my old PC I could press Cont-Alt-Delete and get a list of what was running--maybe 8 items. Doing that on XP gives me a list a mile long. I was hoping for some way to figure out what was what on that list, and could "end task" whatever was going on that I didn't need at the moment. No big deal, I can out-wait the slowdown. It's just annoying. Cheers, J

If they did that they would have a TON of windows updates to do plus likely all 3 service packs to deal with. Any of those items you listed try doing a google search for them and you will quickly find out what they belong to, or use a program like free start up lite by the makers of malwarebytes. StartUpLite avg= your antivirus is AVG? you do not want to stop that for sure. you can use a process library to find what each one is and does, what ever you do, DO NOT use a registry cleaner! if this is a dell then the dsca is a dell file C:\Program Files\Dell Support Center\gs_agent\custom\dsca.exe DSCA is Dell's remote-support app. If you're relying on Dell's remote-desktop support, do not delete it. but it does not need to be in your start up list. msseces.exe (Microsoft Security Essentials) are you using both AVG and Microsoft Security Essentials on your pc for Antivirus? if so you need to fully remove one of them you should only run one full time AV at a time that will cause conflicts. smax4pnp.exe (SoundMax controls) you can look up the rest of them there at the pcpitstop library if you want. another good free program that can help you with this kind of stuff is winpatrol WinPatrol

Messenger & MSN browser have check marks .. so they are installed. You sort of did things backwards. Just browse and expand that list and put a check mark next to your Games & they'll come back. As you notice more things that don't work.. browse that again and add checkmarks. Usually nothing in there is required - all sort of optional stuff that is enabled when it does have a check mark to the item wanted. So uncheck your messenger and MSN browser & they'll go away & use a few less memory and cpu resources and save a few drive bytes.

what kind of antivirus and sypware protection do you have on your pc and is is fully updated and have you run scans. The things you describe can occur from some types of infections. Lets run some free scans and make sure you are clean. Get superantispyware free and install, udate, run full scan let it clean what it finds. SUPERAntiSpyware next run this online virus scanner FREE Online Virus Scan run ATF Please download ATF Cleaner by Atribune from http://www.atribune.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=25&Itemid=25 . Save it to your Desktop. Run ATF Cleaner * Double-click ATF-Cleaner.exe to run the program. * Click Select All found at the bottom of the list. * Click the Empty Selected button. * Click Exit on the Main menu to close the program. * Shutdown/restart the computer. http://www.atribune.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=25&Itemid=25 Please download Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware to your desktop. * Double-click mbam-setup.exe and follow the prompts to install the program. * At the end, be sure a checkmark is placed next to Update Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware and Launch Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware, then click Finish. * If an update is found, it will download and install the latest version. * Once the program has loaded, select Perform full scan, then click Scan. * When the scan is complete, click OK, then Show Results to view the results. * Be sure that everything is checked, and click Remove Selected. Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware I really do not like the use of registry cleaners, if not done properly they can cause serious damage. Therefore I can not suggest their use to anyone other than a registry specialist. Do those steps please and let us know how things are.