[mcsween]

I am running windows XP with 1 gigabit of memory. I also have a widget that montors my memory usage. I see that when I start up my computer in a standard configiration for me I am using half of my memory before I make a keystoke or use any programs. How do I find out what is loading up my memory?
Also when I startup I know there are a number of programs that startup automatically. How can I find out what programs start with the computer? How do I stop them from staring up if I don't want them to?

[Requiem]

Windows Key + R > msconfig > Click the start up tab

Start > Run > msconfig

There is also a few programs that allow you to view it, CCleaner being one of them.

[jbking]

"Task Manager" or "Process Explorer" can likely help with figuring out the where the memory is going. Another point is whether you actually have the whole gig or not as some computer's video system uses some of the system RAM so you could physically have 1024 MB of RAM but some is taken for the graphics.

Task Manager can be found by right-clicking on the Task Bar and selecting it.

Process Explorer you can download from one of Microsoft's sites, IIRC. You should be able to Google it for a page with download instructions.

Running a program called "msconfig" will show what is starting up with your computer and do allow the option of turning off the various services you don't want to start at start up.

Regards,
JB