# CTRL + ALT + DELETE Question - What is all this stuff? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 6, 2001, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ctrl-alt-delete-question-what-is-all-this-stuff/80134 "2001-09-06T22:09:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![sdimbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sdimbert/32/20204_2.png) [@sdimbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sdimbert)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2001, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ctrl-alt-delete-question-what-is-all-this-stuff/80134/1 "2001-09-06T22:09:52Z")
This question is motivated by two things, one honorable and one not. The honorable motivation begins [here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=82951), a thread in which I asked (and learned) about SpyWare, Pop-Up Ads, where they come from and how to get rid of them. If you haven’t read the thread and spend a lot of time online, I suggest you do. The not-so-honorable motivation is jealousy. You see, a friend of mine bragged about how fast his PC ran. To illustrate, he hit **CTRL + ALT + DELETE** and showed me that there were only 4 items in his **Close Programs** window. And I thought, “I gotta get me some of that!” (BTW, anyone get that movie reference?) So, I want to know what all the stuff running on my system is and whether or not I need it around. For the record, my PC is a Dell Dimension L866r running Windows 98 on a Netware 5 network. My System Tray (in the bottom-right corner of my Desktop) contains: [list=a] [li]Task Scheduler[/li][li]Netware Services[/li][li]Volume[/li][li]Norton Anti-Virus Auto-Protect Enabled[/li][li]Adaptec Direct CD Wizard[/li][li]HotSync[/li][/list=a] I know what most of that stuff is for. I want to know about item 1 - what is it and do I need it? I also want to know if I need the icons in the SysTray for them to work. Would it be a problem (and is it possible) to remove them? Second, bigger question: When I hit **CTRL + ALT + DELETE** with no applications open, I get 16 things. I would appreciate any and all help and information anyone is able to provide. What I want to know is, 1) what are these things?, 2) what do they do? and 3) do I need them around or can I somehow turn them off? **I would suggest that if you’re going to post regarding a specific one of these items, please use the subject field to identify the point of your post. That will help us keep track of responses regarding certain list items.** Here they are: [list=1] [li]Explorer[/li][li]Mapisp32[/li][li]Rsvp[/li][li]Directcd[/li][li]Dpmw32[/li][li]Mad[/li][li]Findfast[/li][li]Navapw32[/li][li]Em\_Exec[/li][li]Motmon[/li][li]Promon[/li][li]Systray[/li][li]Mdm[/li][li]Nwpopup[/li][li]Rxmon9x[/li][/list=1] So… can you help? ---
**Author:** ![Padeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@Padeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padeye)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2001, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ctrl-alt-delete-question-what-is-all-this-stuff/80134/2 "2001-09-06T22:14:16Z")
Take one small penguin (AKA Tux, the Linux mascot) and call me in the morning. What you have is the consequence of an OS that does what they want as opposed to what you want. FWIW I find \W is the quickest way to kill those pesky browser popup windows ---
**Author:** ![sdimbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sdimbert/32/20204_2.png) [@sdimbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sdimbert)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2001, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ctrl-alt-delete-question-what-is-all-this-stuff/80134/3 "2001-09-06T22:24:37Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Padeye \* > \*\*What you have is the consequence of an OS that does what they want as opposed to what you want. FWIW I find \W is the quickest way to kill those pesky browser popup windows \*\* Yeah, yeah. The same old song. I would believe what you’re telling me if I hadn’t seen, _with my own two eyes_, how a machine _can_ run. I’m serious: Mark’s machine had only 4 items in **Close Programs** Window. And, regarding **ctrl+W** : It does work, but sometimes the windows spawn so fast that you accidentally close the wrong one. A much, much better solution is AdAware, an app I learned about in that other thread I referenced in the first graf of my OP. You run it once… Pop-Ups go away. ---
**Author:** ![Hanna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b3f665/32.png) [@Hanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hanna)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2001, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ctrl-alt-delete-question-what-is-all-this-stuff/80134/4 "2001-09-06T22:42:53Z")
I’ve tried 2 different pop-up stoppers, **Pop-up killer** caused random freeze-ups, ditched it, and then tried **Web Washer** , it is too good at what it does and prevented loading of sites and pop-ups that I needed, so I ditched it. Now I alt+f4 to close pop-ups. Ad Aware is another program I have, but it doesn’t kill pop-ups (at least not for me, I run AdAware weekly), it removes spyware that comes from programs and games you download. Spyware and pop-ups are two different beasts. I have three things in my tray: Seti@home, my anti virus, and Zone Alarm, a firewall. On your list there is a lot of stuff I have no clue to what it is, systray and Explorer are the only two that are absolutely necessary, although you probably want your anti-virus running too, and a firewall if you have one. Em\_exec is for a Logitech mouse, if you have a mouse with programmed buttons you probably want that running. You can use the System Configuration utility and prevent all the programs you don’t want running from start up to run automatically. start\>\>run\>\>type in msconfig and go to the start-up tab. Uncheck programs you **know** you don’t need from start-up, reboot. ---
**Author:** ![Athena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2001, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ctrl-alt-delete-question-what-is-all-this-stuff/80134/5 "2001-09-06T22:43:49Z")
Task Manager: A small program that allows you to schedule things, like “Open IE to my favorite porn site at 8am every morning.” You can turn it off if you don’t like it, but I’d check and see if other programs are using it, first. Best way to do that is to open it up and see if you recognize anything in there. Removing icons from system tray: Nope, in most cases. Some nice programs give you a choice to put their icon in the system tray when they’re running, but most don’t. Explorer : Internet Explorer Mapisp32 : Email API. Are you running Outlook or Exchange? Rsvp : I think this is some sort of network resource reservation. Disable at your own risk Directcd : Adaptec Direct CD program Dpmw32 : Something network-y. Are you running Novell? Mad : No clue Findfast : Comes with MS Office, allows quick file searching Navapw32 : Norton Anti-Virus Em\_Exec : Logitec Mouse software Motmon : I think this is a diagnosis tool (Motive Monitor) used by some computer manufacturers. Promon : ?? Maybe similiar to Motmon? Systray : Your system tray. Mdm : Could be a couple different MS system level tools. I wouldn’t disable this. Nwpopup : Netware Popup program Rxmon9x : Dell resolution assistent Funny… I can tell you’re using a dell, running Netware. You also use MS Office, and Internet Explorer. lol! I wouldn’t worry too much about any of these, unless you’re really low on memory. There’s no reason why you should only be running 4 things (or whatever your friend says). Hell, my computer has 42 running right now. It just means I multitask more than your average user. ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2001, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ctrl-alt-delete-question-what-is-all-this-stuff/80134/6 "2001-09-06T22:47:07Z")
In my opinon, Systray & Explorer are all that are necessary to run a PC. The rest of the stuff you can find out by dropping them in a search engine box with quotes around them. ---
**Author:** ![xash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c6cbf5/32.png) [@xash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xash)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2001, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ctrl-alt-delete-question-what-is-all-this-stuff/80134/7 "2001-09-06T22:49:16Z")
> [@](#): > > The not-so-honorable motivation is jealousy. You see, a friend of mine bragged about how fast his PC ran. To illustrate, he hit CTRL + ALT + DELETE and showed me that there were only 4 items in his Close Programs window. And I thought, “I gotta get me some of that!” (BTW, anyone get that movie reference?) The number of items listen when you press ctrl-alt-del does not signify speed of comp. for various reasons. one such e.g. … i could have 30 very light programs running in memory as against 4 extremely resource hogging programs. > [@](#): > > So, I want to know what all the stuff running on my system is and whether or not I need it around. For the record, my PC is a Dell Dimension L866r running Windows 98 on a Netware 5 network. I could tell you what’s running, but i couldn’t for the life of me tell you whether you need it or not, for i don’t know you or your dog. Thanks for mentioning your PC config, it always aids us in understanding your predicament better. > [@](#): > > My System Tray (in the bottom-right corner of my Desktop) contains: > > A.Task Scheduler Not really required, this program just schedules various tasks to run on a weekly basis or when your comp. is idle. You can disable it forever by double clicking on it, then going to Advanced and selecting “Stop using Scheduler”. > [@](#): > > B.Netware Services This is used to allow you to access network resources, like other computers, hard disks, printers, etc. i strongly advise against disabling this. > [@](#): > > C. Volume This yellow thingie allows you to quickly adjust your speaker volume and other sound settings. You can disable it from start/settings/control panel/multimedia and deselect “show volume control on task bar” > [@](#): > > D. Norton Anti-Virus This is your anti-virus software and actively guards you from doing stupid things. Again, i strongly advise against disabling this, but it can be done from the settings option of Norton Anti-Virus. This program does take a good amount of memory, and therefor you would see improvement in speed if you disable it, but it ain’t worth the trade-off. > [@](#): > > E. Adaptec Direct CD This handles your CD Writer. Not really necessary in the system tray, just select disable direct cd or some such equivalent option ( by right clicking on the cd looking thing in system tray ). You can always go to start/programs/Adaptec/Easy CD creator to create CDs. > [@](#): > > F. HotSync This means you have a Palm OS based handheld computer that you synchronize with this PC. Leave it here if you synchronize often. If you don’t synchronize often, right click, go to setup and choose run only when Palm desktop is active or just activate it from start/programs/Palm Desktop/HotSync Manager before each HotSybc with your device. > [@](#): > > I also want to know if I need the icons in the SysTray for them to work. Would it be a problem (and is it possible) to remove them? As mentioned above, you can remove them as shown, but they won’t be resident. e.g. if u disable norton protect, your anti-virus will no longer be active and therefor it would be the equivalent of not having an anti-virus for most practical purposes. > [@](#): > > When I hit CTRL + ALT + DELETE with no applications open, I get 16 things. I would appreciate any and all help and information anyone is able to provide. What I want to know is, 1) what are these things?, 2) what do they do? and 3) do I need them around or can I somehow turn them off? 1. These are memory resident programs that reside in your computer’s memory and remain active for as long as you use your computer. 2. They make sure your comp. works like you instructed it to. e.g. catch a virus when it sees one. 3. done to death. 4. You can always ctrl-alt-del and end task a particular task, provided you understand the consequences. > [@](#): > > 1. Explorer > > 2. Mapisp32 > > 3. Rsvp > > 4. Directcd > > 5. Dpmw32 > > 6. Mad > > 7. Findfast > > 8. Navapw32 > > 9. Em\_Exec > > 10. Motmon > > 11. Promon > > 12. Systray > > 13. Mdm > > 14. Nwpopup > > 15. Rxmon9x 1. This is your Windows environment. It will always be resident. If you end-task it, your comp will do a rough equivalent of a reboot. 2. This handles your email stuff. 3. Insufficent data to comment. 4. This handles your cd writing processes. Can be disabled as mentioned earlier. 5. Insufficent data to comment. 6. Insufficent data to comment. 7. Speeds up searches when you use start/search/files and folder. can de disabled from the start menu. 8. This is norton’s anti-virus protection. 9. Insufficent data to comment. 10. Insufficent data to comment. 11. Insufficent data to comment. 12. This is your system tray. Do not disable. 13. This is your Machine Debug Manager. 14. Insufficent data to comment. 15. Insufficent data to comment. An excellent tool to figure out what’s happening in this department is DrWatson. Go to start/run and type “drwatson” then double click on the new icon and choose view/advanced view. Then just look around and leave 🙂 any further questions ? ---
**Author:** ![NutWrench](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nutwrench/32/20193_2.png) [@NutWrench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NutWrench)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2001, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ctrl-alt-delete-question-what-is-all-this-stuff/80134/8 "2001-09-06T22:52:18Z")
Explorer and SysTray is the bare minimum you need to run Windows. If I want to play a game, I shut down everything else except for those two in order to free up the maximum amount of RAM and CPU resources. Em\_Exec is a support driver for your mouse. If your mouse has a 3rd or fourth button it will catch any clicks from them as well as do a few other things. I think FindFast has something to do with Microsoft Office. I don’t recognize the other tasks, though. –Nut ---
**Author:** ![typo\_mna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eb8c5e/32.png) [@typo\_mna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/typo_mna)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2001, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ctrl-alt-delete-question-what-is-all-this-stuff/80134/9 "2001-09-06T22:52:57Z")
> [@](#): > > Explorer : Internet Explorer **Athena** , I think Explorer, in this context, is Windows Explorer. > [@](#): > > In my opinon, Systray & Explorer are all that are necessary to run a PC When I was doing phone support at an ISP, if we ran across a weird problem that defied normal troubleshooting techniques, one of the first rules we had was to shut down everything but these two items, to rule out any hidden programs doing strange things. So, I agree with **handy** on this one. ---
**Author:** ![Athena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2001, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ctrl-alt-delete-question-what-is-all-this-stuff/80134/10 "2001-09-06T22:55:20Z")
**Nutwrench** and **Xash** are right - Explorer is your windows environment, not internet explorer. I misspoke. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2001, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ctrl-alt-delete-question-what-is-all-this-stuff/80134/11 "2001-09-06T22:59:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by sdimbert \* > [list=1] > [li] **Explorer** - The windows shell program[/li][li] **Mapisp32** - An email client component (probably something to do with Outlook or Outlook express[/li][li]Rsvp (dunno)[/li][li] **Directcd** (The software that allows you to use your CDRW as a hard drive)[/li][li] **Dpmw32** - a windows message component (I think)[/li][li]Mad (dunno)[/li][li] **Findfast** - a file-indexing program - switch this off in control panel and remove the shortcut from Start/Programs/startup for a performance improvement[/li][li] **Navapw32** - something to do with Norton AV[/li][li] **Em\_Exec** - something to do with a logitech moouse I think[/li][li] **Motmon** - ‘motive monitor’ - something to do with internet debugging I think[/li][li]Promon (dunno)[/li][li] **Systray** - The windows system tray program[/li][li]Mdm (dunno)[/li][li] **Nwpopup** - the Novell popup message/dialog[/li][li] **Rxmon9x** - a bit of Dell-specific diagnostic software (I think this is what’s going to provide the info if you had to call tech support)[/li][/list=1] > \*\* Hope this helps ---
**Author:** ![xash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c6cbf5/32.png) [@xash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xash)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2001, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ctrl-alt-delete-question-what-is-all-this-stuff/80134/12 "2001-09-06T23:06:14Z")
**typo mna** and **handy** , i agree with you that “In my opinon, Systray & Explorer are all that are necessary to run a PC”. But why the hell would you want a fast PC that only runs these two things ? you could do these two things on a 486. So having more than two things when you press ctrl-alt-del, in my view, add far more value to my sitting on computer experience than those two alone ever would. A good example of when you would absolutely want only those two things in there are **typo mna** ’s troubleshooting example and **NutWrench** ’s gaming example. For most of the rest, i wonder what you would do with just explorer and systray in memory 🙂 addendum: you could also have active tasks that do not display in the list when you press ctrl-alt-del. but to write such programs you need superior Win API programming knowledge. and hi **handy** , haven’t seen you around in a while… ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2001, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ctrl-alt-delete-question-what-is-all-this-stuff/80134/13 "2001-09-06T23:39:19Z")
Before sailor comes in here and screams some more, you don’t NEED systray.exe. It does not provide support for the system tray itself, it merely provides a standard set of system tray apps MS thought would be convenient. Our previous rendition of this: [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=79591](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=79591) That said, it probably doesn’t hurt much to have it, if you like any of the things it provides. The first thing to do is switch off findfast. You may find that your machine behaves acceptably once you got rid of this. If your disk is being accessed mysteriously, this is probably the culprit. It is making indices, ostensibly so that you can find things quickly. In reality, most people find them pretty near useless. Rsvp is the “Resource Reservation Protocol” - network traffic control, basically. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2001, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ctrl-alt-delete-question-what-is-all-this-stuff/80134/14 "2001-09-07T01:33:07Z")
yes get of fastfind - from [cnet.com](http://cnet.com) fastfind=slowPC. ---
**Author:** ![k.os](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e0b2c6/32.png) [@k.os](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k.os)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2001, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ctrl-alt-delete-question-what-is-all-this-stuff/80134/15 "2001-09-07T04:04:31Z")
[slight hijack] I have one task running when I crtl-alt-del that I had hoped someone would mention since I have been looking for info about it and have come up blank. Does anyone know what “Robot” is? It’s the last task in my list, after Systray. I can disable it and everything stays fine, but when I reboot, it’s back. I have run AdAware and found out I was clean, Looked in msconfig and found no reference to it and nothing I can’t seem to recognise. Basically I’m stumped. Anyone know about this “Robot”? TIA.[/slight hijack] ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2001, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ctrl-alt-delete-question-what-is-all-this-stuff/80134/16 "2001-09-07T04:05:04Z")
Boscibo said: systray and Explorer are the only two that are absolutely necessary Athena: Systray : Your system tray xash: 12. This is your system tray. Do not disable. I do not know how many times I have debunked this but it seems it is a never ending task. Systray is _not_ “absolutely necessary” and it is _not_ the “system tray”. I have explained this at length in previous threads so I will not repeat the details here. I am amazed how information which is patently wrong gets repeated around. ---
**Author:** ![Hanna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b3f665/32.png) [@Hanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hanna)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2001, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ctrl-alt-delete-question-what-is-all-this-stuff/80134/17 "2001-09-07T04:17:47Z")
Sailor, I actually run Windows without systray myself, but that (“systray and Explorer are the only two that are absolutely necessary”) is what other people, supposed “experts”, tell me. My own PC is one thing, but I don’t want to steer others down the wrong path…that’s why I said leave it running. ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2001, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ctrl-alt-delete-question-what-is-all-this-stuff/80134/18 "2001-09-07T04:36:30Z")
yup, I am amazed. “supposed experts” repeat information that is patently worng and very easily verifiable as such (just go to the MS site). Other people repeat what they hear in spite the fact that it contradicts their personal experience. Amazing. As I say, I have dealt with systray in past threads and you can find more complete information there. It just adds some icons which you may or may not want or need. And you can definitely kill it at any time without catastrophic effects. I am of the school of having as few things running as possible because I have found nmy computer is way more stable that way. All I have when I start the computer is Explorer, the sound control (which would be provided by systray if I did not have one specific for the sound card) and the mouse (because it is not standard). ---
**Author:** ![Lockfist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/838e76/32.png) [@Lockfist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lockfist)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2001, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ctrl-alt-delete-question-what-is-all-this-stuff/80134/19 "2001-09-07T05:14:06Z")
This is a great thread. All those damn programs drive me bonkers. So it is all well and good that you can shut down those programs but what I want to know is, how the hell do you get all those non-essential programs to NOT load when you start your computer ? ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2001, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ctrl-alt-delete-question-what-is-all-this-stuff/80134/20 "2001-09-07T05:20:30Z")
Lockfist, I have posted this information quite a few times in the past and it should not be difficult to find. Programs can start from a variety of places. I have also posted about better ways to see what is running because ctrl-alt-del really does not show much detail. This topic of what is running in the background comes up regularly and has been discussed in depth. (But I am too tired to do the search myself now. Maybe someone else can provide links.) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ctrl-alt-delete-question-what-is-all-this-stuff/80134.md?page=2)