Thanks, Karen. The program I mentioned previous (Ultimate Troubleshooter) does exactly that - describes all process AND start-ups running on my computer, allows deletion of any and gives recommendations on whether to keep or not. I've found this information very valuable.
Cathy ----- Original Message ----- From: [email protected] To: RBASE-L Mailing List Sent: Friday, April 24, 2009 6:19 AM Subject: [RBASE-L] - Re: Security Programs Cathy: Good for you for putting all that work in! One thing I did little by little in my "down" time was to document on paper everything that runs in my "startup". In case you don't know how to do this, go to Run, MSConfig, Startup tag. I go to the site www.sysinfo.org (make sure you put the www or else it might go to http and it brings up a different site). Type in the name of the program startup runs and it describes it. I write down the program and a short description, and whether I keep it there or disable it. So I can periodically go back into Startup and see what new options have been added, or previously disabled ones now enabled again. The next thing I want to do is look at the Process tab in task manager and do the same thing. My computer is still behaving normal! Fingers crossed here! Karen Thanks for your follow-up, Paul. A little overwhelming for my non-technical mind to process. I spent several weeks a few years ago learning what every Windows task running on my computer was for, whether it could harm anything or was even needed, and disabled or deleted ones I thought undesirable (used Ultimate Troubleshooter and couple other programs that explain what each task is for). But so many were added so regularly, I gave up, and trying to learn about harmful ip addresses, redirecting bad ones, etc. seemed even more challenging. I keep telling myself to take a computer class and learn all this, but never forced myself to make the time for it. What a shame that there are enough people/companies out there misusing their computers to attack ours that one needs to learn all these defensive procedures. Cathy Grimes
