What programs should be running on my machine in the background?

No, I can’t.

It’s not that I don’t want to, honest. If I could provide a comprehensive
list of what you do and don’t need, I would.

The problem is that it’s nowhere near that simple.

The fundamental problem is that everyone’s list is different. What should be
running on your machine is not the same as what should be running on someone
else’s machine.

Why is it so different for everyone? Because people’s machines are
different, and how people use their machines is different.

And, of course, what people care about is different.

Consider:

• Hardware differences can manifest as different helper
  applications running on the machine. Your video card, for example, might
  include an important utility to manage your video settings. Removing that
  utility might cause the video card to be unable to do everything you might
  want. And that’s just an example, almost every peripheral on your machine
  could have something similar. Note that I’m not saying that it
  does, I’m simply saying that different manufacturers of different
  peripherals could choose to provide additional software that runs and shows up
  in your list of running programs.

• Configuration differences in Windows itself will frequently
  manifest as differences in the processes showing up in your task list.

• Installed software will often install helper applications
  that run all the time and show up in the task list. Naturally not all people
  install the same software, so that list will be different from person to
  person. As just one example, consider all the different anti-spyware and
  anti-virus software that’s out there – depending on which you choose to run,
  each will have a different impact on the running process list on your
  machine.

• How you use your computer can have a big impact. Perhaps
  you run programs and leave them running; perhaps you run programs that, as part
  of their operation, run other programs that you might not know about or
  recognize.

• Personal preference is a theme across much of the above.
  For example, perhaps you like the QuickTime icon on your tray; that’s
  one difference right there between your machine and mine. What you
  want is almost as big a part in all this as what you
  need.

• Software complexity makes this even harder. I’m thinking
  here of the infamous “SVCHOST” process that in actuality hosts other
  processes; often several at a time. You’ll see several svchost.exe processes
  running at all times, and that’s normal. And turning off some system services
  may, or may not, impact what you see.

That’s a really long list of excuses for why I can’t give you a simple list
of what you need and what you don’t. That list doesn’t exist; our machines are
simply too different and customizable.

•

Now, having said all that, you can do some research and make some
decisions about some of what you’re finding on your machine.

Let me start by throwing out my usual mantra: backup. If you’re about to
make configuration changes to your machine, potentially turning off software and
services that you could find out after the fact were required, you’re going to
want a full system backup to go back to. It’s the fastest, and the safest way
to protect yourself.

I have these suggestions:

1. Use Process Explorer to examine the
   running processes on your machine. It’ll often show the descriptive text that’s
   included with many executables, and that might be enough to answer the age-old
   “what’s this?” question.

2. Use Google for the
   processes you don’t recognize. Nine times out of ten the answer is there in one
   of the first results. Many sites, even though they might be selling a product,
   also include good, basic information as well. A good example is liutilities, or Uniblue; they’re a frequent result when
   searching for a specific “.exe” or “.dll”, and while they try hard to sell you
   their product, the basic information they provide for free on the search
   results page can often be enough to answer your question. Wikipedia can also be a good resource for
   very basic information. And of course you’ll also find a few right here on
   Ask Leo!.

3. Use Black Viper’s list of
   services to evaluate which system services you need to have running on your
   machine. Lists are provided for both Windows XP and now Vista. It’s a little
   techie, and as I said, you’ll have to make decisions based on your
   understanding of your own needs, but Black Viper provides a ton of valuable
   information.

By the way, all that assumed you have a properly working and clean machine.
If you have spyware, viruses or a rootkit on your machine, things get
significantly more difficult. Step one would be to ensure that your machine is
virus and spyware free.