Can I get some windows task manager help?

Question

In "Task Manager" I have these programs running under "Processes", which are needed and which aren't?

firefox.exe*

sfctlcom.exe*

rundll32.exe**

svchost.exe**

explorer.exe***

tmproxy.exe***

tmbmsrv.exe****

tmpfw.exe****

ufseagnt.exe****

flmain.exe****

svchost.exe****

svchost.exe****

tscfcommander.exe****

ctfmon.exe****

winlogon.exe****

groovemonitor.exe****

tscfplatformscomsvr.exe****

csrss.exe****

svchost.exe****

services.exe****

svchost.exe****

svchost.exe****

lmonitor.exe****

tmas_oemon.exe****

mdnsresponder.exe****

lsass.exe****

rescharger2004.exe ****

jusched.exe

soundman.exe

nvsvc32.exe

crypserv.exe

system

tscfcmdrlauncher.exe

smss.exe

system idle process

* = over 30,000k "mem usage"

** = over 20,000k "mem usage"

*** = over 10,000k "mem usage"

**** = over 1,000k "mem usage"

I marked the "mem usage" to see if those numbers are normal.

I'm not that tech savy so any help I can get I'll appreciate.

Thanks

Answer 1

You can look them up here to see if they need to be running.

http://www.tasklist.org/

Answer 2

Ok, some of these are system processes, some are for your network  the rest are programs such as updaters, printer control software etc. running in the background.

In order to tell which is which you have to look at the 'User Name' column. You can force the window to group them by user name simply by clicking on the User name tab at the top. The list will then be rearranged into groups - LOCAL SERVICES, SYSTEM, NETWORK SERVICE and another group based on the name of the user who is currently logged on. If you log on to your computer using a name XYZ, you will see that name XYZ next to some processes. Only those with that user name next to them can be closed without causing problems but you can't close them all. For instance, explorer.exe and rundll32.exe can't be closed because they're needed by the system. I think ctfmon.exe should not be closed either. Also, you may not want to disable your antivirus unless you are about to run some high-end games on your PC.

Answer 3

Well, firefox is built to take up memory, so if you're not using it, go into task manager and end the task, which should save some memory. otherwise sfctlcom.exe is a Trend Micro file, meaning it has something to do with your A/V software. The ones that start with tm also look like Trend Micro files. groovemonitor is MS office. flmain is also trend micro. For the most part, the major memory hog on your computer is Trend Micro. For the most part, I'd say most of the processes are necessary. If you'd like to cut down on processes, try a different A/V program. Windows Live OneCare is excellent