Background Programs...!

Hi Lads, Lasses, and fellow Infidels...
...!
In my Win '98 SE, when pressing the CTRL+ALT+DEL it brought up a list of about a dozen programs running in the background.
I could safely shut all of them down except Explorer and Systray, before loading up my Alien Blaster programs...
Now that I've also got Windows XP Pro installed, my list of background running programs totals 39 or more....!!!
Which ones can I safely shut down, or to put it another way, which ones are important to leave running for Windows to function correctly...?
Many thanks...
...!
Paul....(What's a Pope?)...
...
...LOL...!
Tee-Hee...!

In my Win '98 SE, when pressing the CTRL+ALT+DEL it brought up a list of about a dozen programs running in the background.
I could safely shut all of them down except Explorer and Systray, before loading up my Alien Blaster programs...
Now that I've also got Windows XP Pro installed, my list of background running programs totals 39 or more....!!!
Which ones can I safely shut down, or to put it another way, which ones are important to leave running for Windows to function correctly...?
Many thanks...

Paul....(What's a Pope?)...


Tee-Hee...!