Q. My anti-spyware program found a list of suspect processes. One is csrss.exe. How do I sort out good and bad processes?
—Janet from Jefferson City, MO, listening on KWOS 950 AM

A. Every computer has background processes running at all times. Most are necessary or beneficial.

To see processes, click Ctrl+Alt+Delete on your keyboard. Select Start Task Manager. Click the Processes tab.

Process names usually give you virtually no information. So, you can turn to the Internet.

Uniblue's Process Library is a great resource. You can look up any process. It'll tell you which processes are necessary, superfluous or malware. You'll also learn how to remove unwanted processes.

Or get the Process Library's ProcessQuickLink program. It puts all the information in your Task Manager window.

You could also try PC Pitstop's Quick Program Scan. It will tell you what processes are running. Descriptions are available for all of them.

Both Uniblue and PC Pitstop advertise with me.

Usually, you won't have to remove malicious processes on your own. Anti-spyware or antivirus software should take care of that.