How Can I see what programs are running on XP ?

There is a different way to check on startup programs. Click on Start, then Run. Type in MSCONFIG. This will bring up the System Configuration Utility. Click on the Startup tab. Everything that is checked is a program you have that starts up when Windows starts. Many of these aren't necessary to have running. Uncheck everything you don't want to run, unless you have an antivirus program there. Don't uncheck that. If you're not sure what to uncheck, you can type these file names in a search engine and find out what they are for. I usually find that almost all of them do not need to be checked. Click OK. It will ask you to restart Windows. A window will pop up when Windows restarts. Just click in the box then click OK.

I hope this helps!

Click on Start, Run type TASKMGR and click on ok. Windows Task Manager windows will appear. On the Application Tab you can see the program running in your computer and in the process tab you will know that what is the actual process running in the background of your computer. If you want to know about those process than search on google. you will find lots of stuff related.

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Go to the Task Manager by pressing Ctrl+Shift+Esc (or) by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del keys....

In the first Tab (Applications), you can see the listing by applications that are running....In the second tab (Processes), you can see the listing by the processes that are running on your computer...

Go to Belaric Advisor.com and download the program, they will keep you up to date as what is on your computor and let you know if your updates are in good shape. The program is Free for Home use.

press Alt+Ctrl+Delete (just press it once if not you can restart it) then a menu will come up and in one of the tabs you can see running programs

ctrl + alt + del

click on the processes tab