Which Background Programs Can I Close?

When my PC is slow, I press Ctrl-Alt-Delete to close unnecessary programs. But there are programs running that I can't identify. What are they?

Eric Andersen, Arlington Heights, Illinois

All sorts of programs run in the background on your PC. Closing unessential ones is sometimes a good idea, because doing so can increase your system's speed and can help keep software installations trouble-free. Identifying which apps are essential and which are not takes some detective work, however.

Pressing Ctrl-Alt-Delete in Windows 98 and Me opens the Close Program dialog box, which lets you select an app and click End Task. In Windows 2000 and XP, this key combination brings up the more complicated Task Manager (in Windows 2000, you also have to click the Task Manager button after you press Ctrl-Alt-Delete). But fear not: You need to be concerned with only two of the Task Manager's tabs: Applications and Processes (see FIGURE 1).

It's easy to figure out what to close on the Applications tab because most of the names are easy to recognize, such as Quicken and Microsoft Word. Determining which processes you can safely stop is trickier. Click Processes to see a long list of open executable files. When you select one and click End Process, you're warned that this may crash your system. It probably won't, but save any open documents to disk before you try this just the same.

If you don't recognize a specific process listed in either Close Program or Task Manager, search your hard drive for the file name. That should give you a clue as to which program launched the process. Write the name down, and then click Cancel to exit Close Program. Select Start, Find, Files and Folders (in Windows 98), Start, Search, For Files and Folders (in Me and 2000), or Start, Search (in XP).

In Windows 98, enter the file's name in the Named field. In Windows Me and 2000, type the name in the 'Search for files or folders named' field. In Windows XP, enter the name in the field labeled 'All or part of a file name'. Select Local hard drives from the 'Look in' drop-down menu. Click Search Now, Find Now, or Search, and locate the file among those listed in the results pane to the right.

If that doesn't help identify the mystery process or application, enter the file name in the search field of Google or your favorite search engine. You're bound to find some useful information about the file.

Here are some of the programs that may mystify you when you bring up the Windows 98/Me Close Program window.

Explorer and systray: Keep these basic Windows components open at all times.

Rnaap: This program loads when you use dial-up networking, and it stays in memory until you close Windows. Close it; Windows will reload it if necessary.

Ctfmon.exe: Microsoft claims that closing this Office XP utility for voice recognition and other text-entry alternatives may make Office unstable. The program stops loading when you uninstall Office's Alternative User Input feature.

Some common processes listed in the Task Manager's Processes tab under Windows 2000 and XP follow.

Explorer.exe, LSASS.EXE, services.exe, system, and WINLOGON.EXE: These necessary parts of Windows must keep running.

Iexplore.exe: Ending this Internet Explorer executable file will cause all of your IE browser windows to close.

Taskmgr.exe: This is the executable file for the Task Manager program itself.

Svchost.exe: Often more than one copy of this host process for.dll files will be running. Though closing one of them probably would not cause any major harm, it could crash an application.

Msmsgs.exe: If you don't use Microsoft Messenger (not to be confused with Windows Messenger), you can close this program without problems.

Spoolsv.exe: This is your print spooler, so Windows probably won't let you close it, lest your printer starve for data.

Sudden Reboots

My husband's PC just reboots out of the blue. We can't figure out what is causing this. Any ideas?

Donna Hills, Ashland, Ohio

There are a lot of possible causes for sudden reboots. If they happen only when you run a particular application, that program is probably the culprit. Check the software vendor's Web site for an update or look for a more stable program.

Try finding the miscreant by turning off all the applications that load automatically when Windows boots: Press Windows-R, type msconfig, and press Enter. Click the Startup tab, uncheck everything, click OK, and reboot your system. If that solves the problem, try rechecking programs on the Startup tab one at a time (reboot between each) until the problem recurs. When it does, you've found the source.

Scan your PC for viruses (which you should be doing regularly anyway), and update your hardware drivers as well.

If these actions don't remedy your PC's involuntary reboots, the cause is most likely an overheated system. Open your PC's case and clean the dust out with a can of compressed air (you can buy this at any computer store for about $10).

The problem could also be related to the computer's electrical system. Try a different power cord (hey, it's cheap and easy), or replace your surge protector (not as cheap but still easy). And make sure your PC doesn't share an electrical circuit with a washing machine or other large appliance that uses a lot of power at irregular intervals.

Should I Shut Down My PC?

Should I turn off my PC when I'm done using it for the day, or leave it on overnight?

David Cossio, El Paso, Texas

Some people argue that leaving a computer on is bad for it. Others take exactly the opposite view, saying it's bad to turn it off. I find neither argument convincing.

One fact is absolutely certain: Turning off your PC saves electricity--and money.

But then again, so does hibernation, which is faster. When you set a computer to hibernate, Windows copies everything in RAM to the hard drive and then shuts down the hardware. When you turn the PC back on, Windows restores your system to the state it was in when you started hibernation. From the hardware's point of view, the computer has been off, but to Windows, you never left. See the November 2002 Answer Line for instructions on setting up your computer to hibernate.

But there are good reasons why you may want to turn your computer off instead, especially if you're using Windows 98 or Me. With these versions of Windows, the longer you go between reboots, the more unstable the environment becomes. If you only hibernate, Windows never actually closes down and restarts, and therefore it becomes more prone to crashes. This isn't a problem with Windows 2000 and XP, however.

One-Click Shutdowns

What is the command line for exiting Windows, and what are the benefits of command-line exits?

Marilee Lawrence, Fresno, California

Closing Windows with a DOS-style command line gives you all sorts of options for shutting down your computer. You can create an Exit Windows shortcut, for example, or set up a batch file that performs one or more maintenance chores--defragment your hard drive, back up your data, and so on--before shutting down your system.

For instructions on creating a shortcut, see Scott Dunn's January 2001 Windows Tips column. You may have to alter the specific command line, however, as Scott's instructions are a bit out of date.

If you want something fancier--say, a shortcut that will defrag your hard drive and then shut down--create a simple batch file: Select Start, Programs (or All Programs), Accessories, Notepad. What commands you actually enter in the batch file will depend on which version of Windows you use, but the first line should launch the defragging, and the second should shut down Windows. For defragging commands for the different Windows versions, see "Defrag Automatically" in my October 2002 column. Here are the various commands for shutting down Windows.

Windows 98 and Me: rundll.exe user.exe,exitwindows (no space after the comma)

Windows XP Home: shutdown-s

Windows 2000 and XP Pro: Neither OS has a dependable shutdown command, so I recommend BK-Soft's free Kill Win (see FIGURE 2). If you install Kill Win to its default C:\Killwin folder, then the command c:\killwin\killwin.exe /s will shut down Windows.

So, for example, if your PC is running Windows XP Home Edition, your shutdown batch file should read:

defrag c:

shutdown-s

Save this file in a convenient folder as defragnshutdown.bat. When you're ready to shut down, just use it like a shortcut.

Send your questions to answer@pcworld.com. We pay $50 for published items. Click the link for more Answer Line columns. You'll find Contributing Editor Lincoln Spector's humorous writing at The Link Inspector.

NTFS From a Floppy

Whenever your hard drive won't boot, you probably reach for a bootable floppy disk. But bootable floppies run the old DOS operating system, which doesn't recognize hard drives formatted in the NT File System (NTFS) that Window XP and 2000 use. The solution is NTFS.com's free program NTFS Reader for DOS. Put NTFS Reader on a bootable floppy to view the folders and files on an NTFS-formatted hard drive. You can also use the program to copy these files to a FAT-formatted or networked drive.