Identifying and Getting Rid of Unwanted Processes

[JohnConnolly]

Hi,

This is a two part question:

Our WinNT Server is running a whole heap of processes and I suspect that many of them are not needed (it seems that many uninstalls don't do a complete job). Does anyone know of a comprehensive list of processes and what they do?

I have identified some processes that are definately leftovers from uninstalled applications but can't get rid of them i.e. I can't find where they're being started from (not from "startup" folders and not from the registry as far as I can see). One is LEXSTART.EXE - any ideas?

John Connolly

 

[beyert]

If you are seeing LEXSTART.EXE in the system process then there has to be an entry for it in the Registry I assume you did a find in regedt32?

 

[johncurtis]

Lexstart.exe is from Lexmark printer software. You'll find it in the registry under one of the run keys. You may have other stuff in the run keys that you can also delete, but be careful.
John

 

[JohnConnolly]

I've tried searching for LEXSTART.EXE using regedit but it says it can't find it. I've looked in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run and there's no sign of it. There is a Lexmark folder in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE but I'm a bit nervous about deleting it and it doesn't have any keys with lexstart.exe in...