Defragging Part2 !!

[DuzyEverwork]

Thank sddsddean and Uzoma for their replies below to part one of the problem, when I checked to see what was running I found this lot..Explorer/Avgcc32/Avgserv9..OK I understand these three and thats what I assumed the problem to be which you kindly confirmed...so whats this lot all about then?...Sctray/Ymsgr-tray/Osa/Wmencagt/Incd/ Loadqun/ Wkcalrem/Lvcoms/Systray/E_sicn03..how come these 10 things are running in the background and what are they (I must admit some of the things look familiar ie 'Systray' not that I have any idea what it is though. And can I shut them all down without doing some awful irreparable damage?..and while we are about it, why havn't I had this problem in the past?....please don't abandon me halfway through the problem xxxxxTrudi :o)

[DuzyEverwork]

OK..think I have answered part of the above for myself..looking at it objectively I can see systems tray and the Yahoo messenger tray so I am assuming that these programmes are ones which start up automatically when I start the computer so it will be safe to shut them all down from the 'close program' window and they will all start again when I re boot after defragging......right or not? Trudi :o)

[mac309]

If you know what programs are running in the background and are not essential you can disable these from starting from boot-up by running MSCONFIG in the RUN command on the program manager. Select STARTUP and remove the checks for the programs you don't want to start. Be aware that certain progs will be essential for your machine's hardware to run correctly. hope this helps

[j2buttonsw]

Windows 9x requires systray and explorer to run. The rest can be stopped. I would defrag in safe mode as someone has already pointed out.

[farkone]

here http://www.answersthatwork.com/Tasklist_pages/task
list.htm is a site that explains many common processes and whether malicious or not.