Cleaning up a computer to get it to run quicker

I read an article where it said to open the Task Manager and end all processes except for systray and explorer and then it had some other things to do after that. When I attempted this, it said that I might losing data and system instablility if process was terminated. Is it okay to end these processes for clean up? There are quite a few in the task manage window.
The computer keeps freezing and gets a (Not Responding) message in the top blue bar a lot. Documents and programs open and close extremely slow as well.
Thank you for your help.
Windows XP Pro, SP 3

 

Also, how much RAM do you have installed?
512MB is the lowest recommended, but 1GB is much better.
And check on what is on your Startup or running in the background.
This in addition to DomLucs suggestion.

 

Who ever told you that was a moron.
Never end a task unless you know what it is or does.
Read some of the guides this site has on cleaning.

I would never do that.
It will corrupt alot of files and its a decent way to crash your computer.

 

512 MB RAM
Thanks! I will continue to follow your advice and see how it goes. Thanks for setting me straight about the Task manager. You guys are great!

 

Re: Cleaning up a computer to get it to run quicker-Ineed help with this too! Am I in

I have an fsb.exe running in my task manager/processes (uses 30,000-70,000k mem) I have done searches, checked major geeks and asked several techs etc... it does not show up in sys32 9there is an fsmgmt folder that has share files in it) ...any ideas what it is and what I should do about it? I am wanting to free up some RAM...using (boot from) one of the 80gb hd that was in the computer I bought from you, but it was wiped... I work from and save all files to another drive (500gb) and have THESE things running at startup.

AVGCSRVX
AVGNSX
AVGRSX
AVGTRAY
AVGUI
AVGWDSVC
CSRSS
DLLHOST
EXPLORER.EXE
FNFLICENSINGSERVICE
FBS
ISASS
MBAMSERVICE
MSCONFIG
MSDTC
NVSVC32
REMINDER
RSMSINK
SERVICES
SMSS
SVCHOST (LOCAL, NETWORK, SYSTEM)
SYSTEM
TASKMGR
VSSVC
WINLOGIN

/brainbone