Win98 - spurious processes?

[sailor]

I did a search of this board for “systray” and the error is repeated all the time in every thread I found. Search for “systray” in these threads and see what I mean:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=68393
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=65819
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=63284
I remember correcting this in some past threads but it seems I have lost track lately.

This piece of misinformation is very often repeated by tech support people when you call in with problems. “Close everything except explorer and systray”…

You can close systray and the computer will continue to function and will continue to show the system tray in the screen.

[galt]

Rundll is (I think) the process that lets the PC access and use .dll files and update the system registry.

You are correct to qualify your answer with “I think”. Rundll is a program used to execute code from DLL’s which are intended to be loaded without a directly-associated EXE file. For example, control panels are DLLs which can be loaded using rundll. There are many things provided using rundll, including, as mentioned in the material sailor quoted, some of the icons in the system tray.

I think it’s safe to say that any rundll process is not critical to the system, and can be killed.