what are these win me startup programs and do i need all of them

[heyzeus2]

i have always wondered what functions these windows startup programs serve. some of them cause occasional errors and they all take up a lot of memory.

task monitor -taskmon.exe
pc health -pchshc.exe
loadqm -loadqm.exe
load power profile
scheduling agen -mstask.exe
power reg scheduler v3
state mgr -statemgr.exe


do i need ALL these?
thanks!

[redwench]

let me guess. you got this system from someplace like dell with the OS, and other crap preinstalled?

most of those are keepers. not sure about a couple, if they arent at the link below, google them.

http://www.answersthatwork.com/Tasklist_pages/tasklist.htm

[NyGulkuk]

The only one I would leave checked is Statemgr (if you have System Restore enabled).

The rest you can lose; but everytime you start MSN Messenger Loadqm will return.

I got rid of MSN Messenger and use Trillian. It does not insist on startup entries.

[added]

More info about PowerReg Scheduler:

http://computercops.biz/postp28505.html

[heyzeus2]

these are all straight from windows. i put the pc together myself, which might have been a mistake. as you can see from a lot of my posts, i have problems.
*edit* Wow! those were great links from both of you. thanks!
i am considering rolling back to win 98, what does anyone think about that?

[NyGulkuk]

Whatever floats your boat, but I get excellent performance and no crashes in many months with WinME, but I have modified my OS quite a bit...

Most of the entries you listed are Windows processes, mostly scheduling types of things, except LoadPowerProfile which is for laptops (I think) to prolong battery life.

PowerReg Scheduler may have been a drive-by download while you were surfing with IE.

Task Monitor is for arranging your programs according to usage statistics when defragging which is unnecessary with modern hard drives.

Controlling startup programs is essential with WinME (and Win98 from what I gather). This is probably the single most important thing to do to improve performance in Win9x. Also you must prevent/remove spyware/malware from corrupting your system. This can be tedious with IE, no problem when using Gecko based browsers because activeX doesn't run natively on Mozilla/Firefox/Netscape (but use a Sillydog build if determined to use Netscape as the regular version is over-bloated with crap).

[redwench]

roll back? not unless you cant do anything at all with me. its a pos, but its still supported. upgrade to xp if you want a different os.

at any rate, that whole list takes up almost no ram. and any errors in them are usually caused by other stuff. so disabling them really wouldnt do much (aside from that spyware, naturally). although you certainly can if you want, nothing there will kill your pc if its missing. just keep in mind that the things they control wont happen if you remove them, youll have to do them manually.

[heyzeus2]

well i would like to run xp, but i am not paying all that money for it. i went broke building this system already. i asked the question about 98 because i hear a lot from people that it is the best, most stable version of windows. i wasnt able to use it origionaly with this motherboard because of ndis errors, but i just found the fix for that.

[redwench]

win98 is no longer supported by microsoft. i wouldnt recommend upgrading to me if you already had 98 installed with no problems, but reverting probably wont be a good idea.

[NyGulkuk]

M$'s Win98 support has been extended to 2006, AFAIK.

[heyzeus2]

i wasnt aware that you could get windows support without paying for it.

[NyGulkuk]

It's critical updates and such like, not actual "support".