Too many processes with Vista?

When I open up the Task Manager, it shows that I have 86 processes going, which seems like a lot. I have 14 svchost.exe programs working, and I don't ever remember there being so many. They don't show up on HijackThis, so I'm not sure how I could copy all 86 processes. I've done all the cleaning that was in the stickies, and I'm not sure if this is the correct forum, but I was wondering if someone could take a look at my HiJackThis log (I'm not having problems with Malware, so that's why I didn't post in that forum) so to free up some of the processes I don't need. With just a firefox window open, my CPU Usage is at 10ish% and physical memory is at 42%. Thanks!

 

Hi romial, take a look at the items in the "start up" list....

Go to run >> type "msconfig" >> go to the "start up" tab....

And see what programs you have running at boot up, it should be quite easy to identify what is what for most items.

Q

Edit: you say your CPU is at 10% what is you CPU spec?

And after having a quick look through the log, im quite sure you will find a ton of stuff you can stop from running at start up, and you might want to consider replacing macafee with a better AV and Firewall, not only will it be safer it will use less resources.

 

So I turned off a few programs from the startup list on msconfig, but it doesn't list like the 14 svchost.exe programs on there for example. What should I do about those?
And this is my computer: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220340

Also, I have comcast, so the reason why I use Macafee is because it comes with a complete free suite with comcast.

 

Take a look-see at this --> http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx

That would be reason enough for me not to use it

Avira and Comodo are equally free and infinitely better and less resource intensive.


Avira - http://majorgeeks.com/Avira_AntiVir_Personal_-_Free_Antivirus_d955.html

Comodo - www.comodo.com
[just get the firewall not the AV from comodo if you do]

Q

 

You should have around 55 processes but %10 CPU when idle is way too much IMO and Q has some good advice there. As to your RAM, you are spot on with %50 as Vista uses %50 of any RAM you have be it 1GB or 4. Philosophy being, if you got it then let's use it for quicker response, unused RAM is wasted RAM. Vista is very good at hiding when resources are needed for other things.