by elite marksman » Sun Jan 01, 2006 12:26 pm
you can safely shut down just about anything. Windows wont let you kill the essential stuff through the task manager anyway. You have to do that through the command prompt. Keep explorer open until FS starts, then shut it down. After you exit FS hit ctrl+alt+del again to bring up the task manager. In the lower right corner there should be a button that says "new task". Click on that, then type "explorer" into the box and hit "run". Explorer should restart after a few seconds. If you notice anything running in the background that looks suspicious, try to figure out what program it is, then remove that program if it isn't essential. Don't shut down these programs though.
svchost.exe
spoolsv.exe
csrss.exe
services.exe
qttask.exe
lsass.exe
mcvsrte.exe
If you have an ATI card with Catalyst drivers dont kill
atiptaxx.exe
If you have McAffee, dont kill
mcagent.exe
Mcdetect.exe
McShield.exe
McTskshd.exe
McVSEscn.exe
mcvsftsn.exe
mcvsshld.exe
MpfAgent.exe
MpfService.exe
MpfTray.exe (optional, this controls the tray icon)
MSKAgent.exe
MSKSrvr.exe
Try not to close anything that has "SYSTEM" as its user. those things can be annoying if closed, but they wont cause any permanent harm. Just restart the computer or type the application's name into the same box you used to restart explorer.