When I click ctrl alt del?

Question

The window comes up and I click on processes. Why are there so many processes(20) in the list? Should there be that many? Could this be causing me computer problems?

Answer 1

yep.  those are all of the things currently running.....note the amount of RAM each one takes up.....as well as percentage of CPU.  What I did when I first found this SUPER IMPORTANT area of vista and XP and all microsoft OS was this:

google each process name and read a paragraph about it.  you should be able to decide if you do not want it running everytime your computer starts and if you want to you can safely end most processess (just read about which ones are specific to windows, networking, graphics card, sound etc to judge) after you do some homework.  if you dont want this process runnng do this:

edit you startup menu using "msconfig" just google it to read more about "start up programs" and the like

Answer 2

It's not so much the number of processes that can mess up your computer, but it's what program is running the process.  A process is just a file that is running to help an application operate successfully.  50 sounds like a little much, but it all depends on how many programs are running.  If you have windows vista,  there is a description next to every process to tell you why it is running and/or what application it is helping.

So to answer your question, 20 - 40 is an average amount of processes and the number of processes itself can't cause any problem aside from slowing your machine down.