On Tue, 29 Jan 2008 15:37:09 -0500, "Eisboch" wrote:

How can I find out what program(s) are running "in the background" so to
speak?
Reason I ask is that I routinely put this thing in "standby" mode when I am
not using it and it normally shuts down the display, hard drive and cooling
fans until I hit the "enter" key when I want to use it again and then it
springs back to life.

Every once in a while though, it shuts down normally to "standby", but then
starts up again by itself. The only way to stop this is to completely go
through a "turn off" cycle and then restart again. After that, it's good
for another week or so until it begins to start up by itself again.

I suspect a program is running in the background, because when I do a
complete shutdown, I see a brief window indicating that something is
shutting down, before the computer goes through it's normal "shutting
windows down" cycle.

OS is Windows XP SP2.

Hope this question makes sense. I'd like to open something to see what is
running.

Eisboch


This was posted by John Wentworth back in Oct '06.

Maybe you can use it. I've not done so.

Windows XP and Me contain a program called msconfig (Start-Run-type
msconfig
and select Startup) that will identify those programs that will autorun.

Or, go to http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/Autoruns.html for a
freeware
tool that does the same and more, and works on all Windows platforms. Much
safer than editing the registry.

At the same site look at ProcessExplorer; this is a tool that provides
information on every process running on your computer.
http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilitie...sExplorer.html If you're not
sure if a process should be running go to
http://www.sysinfo.org/startuplist.php to identify the good guys and bad
guys.

The Process Explorer looks interesting, but I'm semi-afraid to try it.
You're brave. Let me know what happens.
--
John H