Open your task manager and see if you have a process running "firefox.exe." Clicking on the "image name" column sorts alphabetically.

If you find it, right click and choose "end process." Then try again.

Hi Zedmelon.

Thanks for answering. I do use task manager...but I usually don't look under "Processing." I look at Apps running. I did not realize I could close a program as you described.

May I ask another question? Under the Process tab...are there supposed to be, oh, let's say, about 1 million processes running?

certainly, glad to help.

...about 1 million processes running?

Well, no. It will depend heavily on what you've got open and how much cruff has been installed over the years. I have far more experience with XP and got my first Win7 box a few months ago. My Vista-specific skills are negligible. The below answer will do you more immediate good if you're still on XP, but the principles are identical.

A basic Windows XP installation will run around 25 processes. My main XP box generally runs around 35 while I use it. My Win7 PC currently has 66 processes running, which strikes me as a lot. Granted, I do have a lot going on, over three monitors: Firefox, Chrome, Pale Moon, I.E., as well as Outlook, Excel, PuTTY, Pidgin, and others. 66 still seems like a lot, though I don't have the time anymore to truly explore that. With eight Chrome tabs, that's eight processes by itself.

Many applications put junk into your system tray (lower right, where the clock lives) that simply wastes your processor and memory until you actually need it, only for the sake of saving you a couple seconds of load time. The downside is, each one of these takes the same amount of time--or more--to load when you boot.

With literally thousands of possibilities--if not hundreds of thousands--I can only point you in the right direction here. My video card has a control panel that always runs. I let it run, but some people hate those and disable them.

Always remember that Google is your friend. You can narrow your search a little by adding "XP" or whatever, and you can also search on the name of each process you find. Those searches are a bit less friendly than they were a few years ago, but you can still usually find what you need to know. The vaguely-described "svchost.exe" is usually a friendly program, and you'll usually see more than one.

The safest way to disable unwanted startup garbage is start -> run -> MSconfig. Be careful and patient.

Dear zedmelon,

Will you marry me? (perhaps not as my husband would not appreciate it). 1 million is exaggerated but I know there are too many processes going on. Yes I run XP and won't change until my well cared for, reconfigured 9 yr old, Sony Vaio craps out. (God bless those boys at Staples) I absolutely will try your solution. (restore point first). You've been very helpful.

I agree to not tell your husband about our clandestine rendezvous if you keep it from my wife.

;-)

Pleased to be of assistance; you're very welcome. Many of those old PCs will run forever if you reinstall Windows every few years and just use good sense in caring for them. The web gets a little busier and horsepower-hungry each year, but you can still reasonably browse it and check email on machines that are edging up on a decade.

Setting a restore point before delving into this type of undertaking is wise. I'm not surprised to hear your nine-year-old computer is thriving. Good work.

PS: Yeah, I caught the hyperbole; I intended for the line "a million..." to be read as a quote, setting the tone for my reply. However, it merely looks like I was shocked by the number, doesn't it?

Heheheh...

Well, it has not been easy keeping this little bugger (I mean awesome) Sony going. The first trick - even before re-installing Windows, repartitioning the C & D drives (naughty SONY) and adding memory everywhere is to erect a 12' candy-cane electric fence around your computer after you have heard, "But I didn't touch nothing," for the 53rd time. To help this contraption blend in with your home decor one can easily top the fence with a layer of barbed wire painted in color(s) which complement your palette.

Then again one must also learn there is a time to request assistance instead of wandering off aimlessly and alone into the netherworld know as the registry pit then haplessly stumbling into the system file wormhole. Ugly, very ugly. At this point...the Borg must take over your computer from half way around the world! Freaks me out. This is great advice I am imparting to the computer world.sharing. Please feel free to share.