How many running processes in the background?

[notsobig]

I just ran Ad-Aware after freshly installed windows and to my surprise running process in the summary window are whopping 47! And this is even before installing OfficeXP This is obviously too much, isn't it? How many running processes do you have and how many is acceptable? Below 20?

[awm]

The number of threads depends on which servies are running, for the most part 1 service = 1 thread (at least). If you have any suspicious looking processes google them. There are also guides online about which processes can be turned off in which enviroments.

[vaio]

Mid to high 30's when folding and online.

[notsobig]

Thanks, I've scanned my PC for spyware and virus and non are detected so far so I think I'm still clean. It's just that I have so much running processes in the background even after I've disabled some startup programs via Startup Control Panel, disabled "auto update" stuffs via option menu in various applications that I have installed. And I don't think average users even care to do this kind of things, do they? So I was curious to know what is the average number of running processes in ordinally people's PC, and I also wanted to know how much these processes can be reduced, as I know some poeple are very good at it. Mid to high 30 processes sounds very familiar. Mine was about the same before reinstalling OS. I don't know what I did wrong this time but 47 is the highest I've seen

[awm]

Possibly some drivers(those that infest the taskbar) create alot of the processes.

[gary_rip]

Mine is only 38 and i have a load of rubbish running like the ipod service and quicktime etc... the best thing to do is to bang the names into google and see what they do, if you do need them kill them in msconfig!

[notsobig]

Thanks, I think I found a very good program to monitor processes,(http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/cprocess.html)with this program, you can see their names as well as icons so it's very easy to know what's actually running in the background at a glance. And judging from this, it seems Virus Scanner, Ati driver and system backup utility are the culprits. So I'm going to kill these processes as much as I can.

[directhex]

directhex@mortos:~$ ps -ef | wc -l
118

feel better?

[yamangman]

I think you're confusing threads with multiple program instances.

The number of threads depends on which servies are running, for the most part 1 service = 1 thread (at least). If you have any suspicious looking processes google them. There are also guides online about which processes can be turned off in which enviroments.

[Lee H]

53 when system starts up and this goes down to roughly 45 when I close a few IM programs.

WMP 11 Beta has added a few extra's but I'm not complaining as the xbox360 see's everything now

[Hottentot]

Normally try to keep it 25-30 processes max.

[dave87]

69, but that is with a few things running

[notsobig]

Thanks guys I somehow managed to reduce my running processes to 38. Had to re-re-install windows though, I must have killed some important services and got stuck forever at logon screen. (Why no "back to default setting"?)I won't touch these settings anymore!

[Curly]

I normally have around 45 -47 running, I have had more and found Creative audio drivers to be about the worst at installing unneeded services...... who needs CTHelper running at startup and in the back ground all the time.

Curly

[notsobig]

You are right, I have killed 4-5 creative services and the card works just fine.

[leeglf]

i have only got 34 running its always around 35 i always thought this was too many but looking at all your posts 34 seems quite good!