Computers - 57 Processes running..

[brien4787]

I am running Windows XP Home edition.
When I press ctrl alt delete... I look under my processes and it says that there are 57 running, with only aim and firefox running.

Should there really be this much stuff running?
This guy who is pretty good with computers told me that it seems like I have either a lot of spyware, or that I have a virus. He thought I had a virus because when I tried to log onto a wireless network at my friends house, it did not work(they were unsecured wireless networks, quite a few of them too). Though I do connect to my own and my schools wireless. He tried to access the IPconfiguration or some shit, I do not know, and said that it wouldnt let him..

Okay, on with that, he said that nortan is a pos, and dloaded the professional version of avast antivirus. we ran my Ad-aware SE and found 14 spyware files and i got rid of them. then restarted, and did a virus scan, but nothing showed up.

I am curious of why i have 57 processes... is this normal, or is there something wrong?

Thanks

[Spieluhr]

I have 45 processes. So I don't know if that helps.

[voca]

I have 20 processes, 57 is crazy, it's usually spyware. get spybot s&d as well as adaware and see if you can get rid of some more.

[Dudesky]

Use the Run command to start "services.msc". You'll see a lot of stuff in there that don't need to be running. A website explaining all of it was done by Black Viper, however it's been down for some time now. But here's an alternate site:

http://majorgeeks.com/page.php?id=12

[94bmw325i]

a lot of the stuff under your user name or whatever you call your computer is crap that you can just close. Also just look for names that seem like scrambled letters usually.