What processes are safe to close?

[Sue]

I have Windows XP - and I'm a big fan when it comes to the Sims 2. Have 1 gig of memory, and not sure what video card is in this computer (this was my dad's before he passed away).

I want to know if there's any processes I can close out of before beginning my Sims 2 game. It runs ok right now, but if I can close any of the following, it would be even better. FWIW, I can't afford a new video card yet.

I've excluded explorer.exe in this; I know I need to keep that one running.

My list of processes are as follows:

crss.exe (system)
lsass.exe (system)
navapsvc.exe (system)
navapw32.exe (owner)
services.exe (system)
smss.exe (system)
spoolsv.exe (system)
svchost.exe (system)
svchost.exe (system)
svchost.exe (system)
svchost.exe (network service)
svchost.exe (local service)
system (system)
system idle process (system)
tfswctrl.exe (owner)
wdfmgr.exe (local service
winlogon.exe (system)

And if someone could be so kind as to tell me what some of these are as well, that would be awesome. I know what the 2 nava's are, winlogon, and the 2 systems, but the rest I'm clueless about.

Thanks!

[Dragonlich]

you might want to check out <a href="http://castlecops.com/StartupList.html">http://castlecops.com/StartupList.html</a>. In general, you could try googling for the program name (including .exe). You'd be surprised what you'd find.

You're running norton antivirus (nav*.exe), which might be disabled, but you probably don't want to kill it.

tfswctrl.exe is HP's version of directCD, but I doubt it'll take up many resources.

Overall, you're not running many weird things. wdfmgr.exe may be excessive. It's part of media player 10, according to <a href = "http://www.liutilities.com/products/wintaskspro/processlibrary/wdfmgr/">http://www.liutilities.com/products/wintaskspro/processlibrary/wdfmgr/</a>

[Glory's Sun]

You can also go to http://www.processlibrary.com to check things out.