I have a new Dell Desktop - XP Home - 360 hard disk - 2 GB Ram -
I use Trend Micro PCcillin - Adaware - Spybot -

Often when I boot up my new computer it says I "have 1 (or 2) programs running" already, but there is nothing there that I can see. How can I find out what is running?

MANY thanks - -
Where does it say 'you have 1 or 2 programs running'?On the Welcome Screen where it has the logos of the different users. I am currently the only user listed. Right under my name it says "You have 1 PROGRAM running". Then I can click on an info link and it says something like "having programs running uses up your memory."

Thanks for any help you can offer!Download HijackThis:
http://www.snapfiles.com/get/hijackthis.html
and post its log at Computer Viruses and Spyware forum.Are you booting from standby or hibernation? Or are you booting after a complete shutdown?OK - shall do!

Many thanks! Just saw your MESSAGE, Quaxo -

Sometimes I'm booting from the standby or hibernation, and sometimes from a complete shudown. I see that that COULD be the situation!!!!!

I'll keep an eye out for which it is for awhile.

You have good intuition!

Thanks again!That just occurred to me because my girlfriend and I have one SHARED computer and we each have a user on it. I'm used to seeing this message because we both usually have something running.

When you Hibernate or Standby, it doesn't close your programs. However, this does not mean that you haven't closed everything, Broni may be right in that it could be some sort of unwanted program running. I do recommend you follow Broni's suggestion and post a HijackThis log, just in case.