Task Manager clean up

Is there a way to analyze & determine the source of the processes in Task Manager and weed out the unnecessary ones?

 

Task Manager explained!!

Mr. Jones- Thanks so much for this referral- excellent resource!!

 

Landisj--While I agree with Steve R Jones' link to Answersthatwork.com as an excellent source of info on what each .exe does what and whether you need it running (as shown in Task Manager), I would strongly caution you from making changes in Services. There are guides for this
http://www.theeldergeek.com/services_guide.htm
But unless you are very careful and know what you are doing, it is too easy to disable some function necessary to run Windows.
The processes shown in TaskManager have usually either
1) been started by you,
2) been started by being in the System Configuration Utility's Startup tab or
3) are integral to the working of Windows.
If a process is started by you but you no longer want it to be running, you can usually just close the program. It should then disappear from Task Manager.
If the process starts at boot, then, most of the time it is because it is in System Configuration Utility's Startup tab. You reach that from Start|Run|type msconfig|OK|Startup tab. When the box to the left of a program is checked, that program will start at boot. You actually need very few processes to start at boot. (Firewall, Anti Virus come to mind.) Of course you may prefer to start others at boot as well, but most processes can be manually started whenever you want to use them. You can prevent a process from starting at boot by unchecking that box|click Apply|OK. (Or the Options or Preferences within the program may have such a setting.) The next time you boot you will get a long winded message about having made changes in System Configuration Utility. Just check the box at the bottom left|OK.
Some help in deciding what you need to have start at boot
http://www.sysinfo.org/startuplist.php
As mentioned, very few are needed.
The processes that Windows, itself, needs to start are not listed in System Configuration Utility, and rarely should be terminated in Task Manager.