System configuration and what it means by stopped or running

[gbishop1]

Hello, ive looked at my system config. and some of my programs are running. some are stopped. is that normal.

 

[phil22]

You mean the list of Services under the Services tab? Yes, that's quite normal.

Many of the services are configured to start "manually" in the Services Management Console.
This means they only start when the user performs actions which require those services.

Those services which are "running" are not necessarily being used at that point in time. Some of them are configured to start "Automatically" which causes them to start everytime Windows starts.

Many so called "power users" keep tight control over which services are allowed to start automatically, to avoid wasting resources, and indeed some services aren't even required at all by most home users. These can be disabled but you have to know what you are doing. Websites exist where a list of required and not-required Windows services are published. Personally I have never been tempted to meddle with the defaults since getting Windows 7.

 

[gbishop1]

Hello, ive looked at my system config. and some of my programs are running. some are stopped. is that normal.

cheers phil22. that's cleared my mind. because i had what i think was a dodgy computer company phone me. it was an international call saying that they were working on behalf of windows. and they told me that my computer was going to crash, and that they could fix it by taking a 1 off payment of £ 154. and they would need access to my computer for 45 mins to download an anti-virus to fix the problem in my system configuration settings. so that all the programs would be running at all times. and that the programs that where stopped were damaging my computer.

thanks.

Gareth. p.s if anyone else has had one of these phoncalls, i would like to know if you had the same spiel as i did.