Process rundll32.exe

Recently I've made a killtask.bat program to end all of my needed currently running tasks just to free up space and see if it lowers computer lag any. Well I have a good deal of useless processes that I added to the program but I was wondering if I can add rundll32.exe to the list. I know that it's something important but I've never seen it as a running process until a week ago when I checked to see what processes I can add to my kill program.

So if anyone knows what rundll32.exe does and if killing it with my program won't affect anything I'd appreciate it. I already did end it though and everything seemed to work fine without it running but I want to make sure, and also know what it's for then.

Hi Vectris, While attempting to make your machine run faster is an admirable venture, there are some logical inconsistencies that you can rapidly run into. Unfortunately, there are plenty of sites and contributors to be found on the internet whose sole mission in life seems to be stripping Windows operating systems down to their most skeletal form. I say, good for them, but have no use for their methods since much of what they seek to remove is important and useful for ordinary computer use. rundll32.exe is one such example. A quick "google" will tell you a bit of information about rundll32.exe, and I am not smart enough to tell you much if anything more than what is represented in the articles linked in the first google page. __________________ Here's one way to think about it…. People think that having "free resources" is hugely important. Sure it is, if you have a use that you will put to those free resources. Otherwise, keeping free resources by virtue of stripping down your operating system is like buying an 8 seat van for a family of 3. The 5 extra seats never get used, but you still have to haul them around with you, consuming gas. "In my opinion" it is just fine to have your RAM and Paging File actively in use and available for the the common functions that you will be using your computer for. _____________________ People still pay good money for RAM Boosters, RAM Cleaners, RAM defraggers and other such silly nonsense that doesn't provide any appreciable benefit. In fact, in my short venture into using various RAM Boosters, I found that the specialty application tended to consume more time and resources than it was supposed to save. So on the other hand, if you have a family of 3 it is good to have three seats filled and in use. Now you're getting your money's worth. With Computers, having Excess RAM or fewer processes running, it is very close to a worthless pursuit of having equipment for which your goal is to never use it. Therefore why have it in the first place. Having processes running in physical memory and/or readily available in paging file makes good sense because your OS will be instantly available to perform functions as necessary. If you delete or remove essential OS system files, then Windows has to create a fresh one, each time it is called for. This is quite often possible, and quite often done in the ordinary function of computing and doesn't get much notice from the average user, but it is its own form of "lag". If you want to improve the performance of your machine, buy more RAM, buy a 7200 rpm HD with 8mb cache to replace an older 5400 rpm drive with 2 mb cache, get new IDE cables if you have IDE drives, keep your OS updated, and update your drivers when there is a significant upgrade, but not the multitude of appearance only or proprietary updates. How about Defragging? Sure once a month or once every few months. How about clearing out the Temps and Cookies? Sure, maybe weekly. How about Disabling Services? Yes, there are a ton of unused Services that are safe to turn off for most users, but the performance gain is most often negligible. You may benefit more from properly selecting the productive applications you use and the security utilities you run in the background. Quicktime and Realplayer are hogs (in my opinion) as compared to the alternates. Adobe Reader is a hog (in my opinion) when compared to Foxit. Symantec, McAfee and Zone Alarm suites, are hogs (in my opinion) when compared to alternatives. Firefox and Opera may be preferable to IE Thunderbird may be preferable to Outlook. You will gain more from improving various hardware features and making good selections of application and security utilities. Bottom line? Leave your rundll32.exe alone. Doug

Cool thanks for the advice. The one thing I haven't done is disabled un-needed services. Is this done by going to services.msc and disabling certain programs from auto-starting? If so any suggestions on what ones I can turn off besides those made by programs and not the OS? In other words what services tied to windows (and not a separate program) can I turn off and still have medium functionality?

Check out the Black Viper site for recommendations regarding Services.

Read carefully and don't be overly ambitious.

Best of luck.

Doug

Edit"

http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm

Check out the Black Viper site for recommendations regarding Services.

Read carefully and don't be overly ambitious.

Best of luck.

Doug

Edit"

http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm

Thanks for the link, it said it's for SP3 and I have SP2 but a majority of the info was still valid. I stuck to safe/tweaked.
I'm hoping this will help with the 60 second lag spike I get every time I boot up my computer, even though it's super fast once it gets going.

I hope it helps too. Keep us posted. Your work may very well help others. 60 seconds isn't "awful" for boot. Especially if the machine is lightning fast once booted. I'll be away for most of the rest of the day, but I do look forward to reading any additional comments you may have.

Well I think you're thinking that it takes only 60 seconds for my computer to boot. Well indeed it is about a minute or two to boot which is fine. But once it boots up, and the desktop loads and everything, the computer will freeze for a bout a minute. I can still move the mouse and click things, but nothing happens until the minutes up and then everything starts up. Also FireFox always has it's own lag spike the first time I run it after a boot. Its like a stop-frame animation type lag where you only get a screenshot every 3 seconds of the updated FF page, so it's super jerky and stuff. Anyways I'm still clueless as to why it's like this, It has been like it for a while but years ago it was fine. Anyways disabling some of the services helped make the desktop load faster, but the freeze at the beginning is still very prominent. It's been a while since I did a defrag so I'll try that in a couple of days.

Hi Vectris, let me toss my oar in here

Once possible cause of an extended delay at the point you describe is if XP is trying to re-establish network connections. To see if this is the case, try the following:

Control Panel
Folder Options
View
Uncheck "Automatically search for network folders and printers"

Hi Vectris, let me toss my oar in here

Once possible cause of an extended delay at the point you describe is if XP is trying to re-establish network connections. To see if this is the case, try the following:

Control Panel
Folder Options
View
Uncheck "Automatically search for network folders and printers"

Thanks, I'm open to any suggestions on this problem from anyone, it's been driving me crazy for almost a year, I've just tried so many things I've given up, I don't think it will every completely go away. I did what you said, I'll edit once I restart and see if there's a change. Oh and I do use a wireless network so perhaps it is partly taking a while to connect? I don't maybe not but sounds plausible after your suggestion.