[Catbird]

finding out all programs/applications that may be "secretely" running behind the scene on a PC?

Thanks.

 

[David_G17]

you probably want Process Explorer v10.2 from http://www.sysinternals.com/ProcessesAndThreadsUtilities.html

it'll show processes that ctrl-alt-delete task manager won't show.

on unix / linux you can run:

ps aux

 

[Catbird]

Maybe I'm wrong, but I thought there was something I could enter from the START --> RUN --> ? that would tell me what was running.

Specificcally, I have a strange icon appearing on my desktop ever since I installed Word 2000 on my XP PC; I wanted two versions of Word so that I could choose which one to invoke (don't ask why). It looks like this icon (small box) is originating from one of the Microsoft Works features... maybe Portfolio. The icon will not respond to a right click, but will produce an odd drop down menu from a double left click which will allow me to choose CLOSE. If I CLOSE, the icon will disappear and I presume that whatever application was running was stopped.

I was hoping that if I could obtain more info, I might be able to delete the appropriate file causing this situation.

I'm open to suggestions.

 

[Sgt. Schultz]

Originally posted by Catbird
Maybe I'm wrong, but I thought there was something I could enter from the START --> RUN --> ?.

msconfig

 

[David_G17]

Originally posted by Catbird
Maybe I'm wrong, but I thought there was something I could enter from the START --> RUN --> ? that would tell me what was running.

Specificcally, I have a strange icon appearing on my desktop ever since I installed Word 2000 on my XP PC; I wanted two versions of Word so that I could choose which one to invoke (don't ask why). It looks like this icon (small box) is originating from one of the Microsoft Works features... maybe Portfolio. The icon will not respond to a right click, but will produce an odd drop down menu from a double left click which will allow me to choose CLOSE. If I CLOSE, the icon will disappear and I presume that whatever application was running was stopped.

I was hoping that if I could obtain more info, I might be able to delete the appropriate file causing this situation.

I'm open to suggestions.

I think that is a backup file used in case MS Word crashes while you are editing a document.

Does the title of the file have a tilde ("~") in it?

 

[AZ-Boog]

"services.msc"

(assuming winxp)

be carefull though, don't disable something if you don't know what it is.

 

[malkore]

Originally posted by Sgt. Schultz
msconfig

+1

This will at least show you all the stuff that gets loaded by startup and stuff, which you can disable from the list.

 

[pyblood]

Originally posted by Catbird
Maybe I'm wrong, but I thought there was something I could enter from the START --> RUN --> ? that would tell me what was running.

Specificcally, I have a strange icon appearing on my desktop ever since I installed Word 2000 on my XP PC; I wanted two versions of Word so that I could choose which one to invoke (don't ask why). It looks like this icon (small box) is originating from one of the Microsoft Works features... maybe Portfolio. The icon will not respond to a right click, but will produce an odd drop down menu from a double left click which will allow me to choose CLOSE. If I CLOSE, the icon will disappear and I presume that whatever application was running was stopped.

I was hoping that if I could obtain more info, I might be able to delete the appropriate file causing this situation.

I'm open to suggestions.

I’ve seen that thing before. It does come from MSFT Works. I can’t remember how I remove it, but it can be done.
I would suggest editing or looking in the msconfig for it. You can also use the app that David suggested to find out the process name.