Cleaning up system processes

My processes jumped over this year from 45 to 75 so I'm cleaning out the trash, though I don't know a lot about it, so If you guys could help me I'd appreciate it. First of all though, I have so much security software that I need to start using something else, I'm somehow (involuntarily) running Viruscan and Antivirus at the same time...how is that possible that Gateway would install BOTH?? No wait now i have 3, Norton, McAfee and Symantec...

I just started looking but I already found that dllhost.exe and csrss.exe could be potential threats, I tried removing dllhost and itpopped up again. With csrss, it's a critical exe so I can't close it that quickly.

http://filehippo.com/download_ad-aware/

http://filehippo.com/download_spybot_search_destroy/?148

Download the programs, read the instructions, and do a scan. I bet you remove 10-15 processes that are spyware/adware/junk just with those programs. You could also post your list of processes and we can point out ones you want to get rid of. There is a site you can cross reference your processes with and see if they are legit or not, but I forget what it is. I'm sure Oz will post it if he sees this.

Autoruns and HiJack This are both good tools to clean out "crapware" that's running at startup.

The only problem is if you don't know the good from the bad.

This sort of tutorial is exactly what you're looking for.

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Ou/?p=547&page=2

But start by uninstalling all unneccesary security products, they tend to conflict with each other quite badly.

Autoruns and HiJack This are both good tools to clean out "crapware" that's running at startup.

The only problem is if you don't know the good from the bad.

This sort of tutorial is exactly what you're looking for.

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Ou/?p=547&page=2

But start by uninstalling all unneccesary security products, they tend to conflict with each other quite badly.
good advise. most security products are bigger resource hogs than the spyware and viruses they protect against. i laughingly call Norton a virus itself because of the way it takes over your system. i unistalled all but the ZoneAlarm firewall and just run an online scan from trend microsystems from time to time. and keep restore on and backup frequently.