I have a number of applications that are no longer used but who have various
"helper" programs still running in background.  They don't show in the
Add/Remove software list that you access from Control panel.  In one case,
the application never was listed, so I need to uninstall the whole thing
manually.  I'm running Windows XP Pro, SP2.

Here are some examples.  These are not all of the list, but they will
illustrate the extent and variety of the problem.  I have full administrative
assess to my system, but I don't know where these "background" helper
programs get run from.  If I had knowledge of where the various places where
they get run at startup located I could remove them manually.  Naturally, I
like to be able to identify all the actual Microsoft programs too, so I would
leave them in.  Some are obvious (winlogin.exe), but I'd like a list because
some are not so obvious.

Here are some of the apps I'm writing about:

1) Skype
This never has had and entry in the Add/Remove list but does start up
everytime I login to Windows.  I'd really want to remove it.

2) realsched.exe
This is an artifact of the RealPlayer viewer that I never use any more.  It
does not show in my Add/Remove list any longer.

3) iPodService.exe
I don't use the iPod service any more.  But, this little program still
starts up and runs in background.

4) ctfmon.exe
I don't even know how this got there or what it does.  It may be from an old
application I once ran.  I'd like to be able to figure that out.

I would say I have 8-10 such programs running in background and taking up
resources.  I'd really like to know how to clean these things up and get my
resources back.

Thanks,

Lonnie