What are the programs running on my task manager?

Question

When I bring up my task manager (CTL/ALT/DEL) it shows my computer is running 45-50 programs (nothing is actually open), my CPU usage fluctuates between 7%-47% and it gives me the choice of ending the process. How do I know what each program is for, what it's doing, and why it's running at the moment? How do I separate the chaff from the wheat?? How do I know if I have viruses and trojans running, for example??

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Answer 1

You have to search the internet to figure out what each program is.  Only worry about the non System ones.  Most computers have about these many programs running, they each do there own thing to make sure your system is running.  one is probably some display drivers,  one is probably something for your mouse and keyboard.  

Answer 2

go to -  http://www.processlibrary.com/

and type in the filenames like svchost.exe and it will tell you about the program...